Mans Triumph Over Nature
by Chewie
Summary: This story is just a conglomeration of new ideas that I have not expanded on yet. I am planning on rewritting the story. It was my first, a few years ago, and i do not regard it as being very good. With that in mind....
1. The Long Way Home.

Untitled ****

The Long Way Home

SHINJI 

Shinji sat upright scared awake from another horrifying dream. He couldn't place why it was so fear inspiring, just that it was. It was more of a memory, from when he battled the fourth angel, then ran away. He could see himself walking down the sidewalk of an empty Tokyo-3 street, then the world changed. Not visibly, but it felt very wrong. It closed in on him, and whirled around him. So he did what his instincts told him to do…. he ran.

He found that his futon was soaked from sweat, and that he was dripping profusely. He decided to visit the bathroom, and wash up. 

A quick bath cleansed him from his dirty exterior, but his mind stayed on the vivid dream he had just awoken from. What was it? What did it mean? "I don't know…" he said out loud.

After leaving the bathroom, he returned to his room and began dressing for another uneventful weekend. 

My existence is so unfulfilling. Why am I made to suffer? Is it because I am unworthy of normality? Is it because I am unable to do things to others' high standards? Why can't they just be nice to me? Is that so much to ask? Why must they always be so condescending, conniving, hateful? Why must I love those who hurt me? Why do I love Asuka? 

This last question took him back? Why would he think something like that? Was it true? Do I love Asuka?"

He resolved himself to think about it, and it would eventually answer itself. He moved out of his room, and into the hallway, and nearly ran into Asuka. 

"Why don't you look where you're going, dork? Mien gott, what is your mind on? It's bad enough that I have to put up with you at work, but I have to take your crap at home, too!!!"

"I- I'm sorry. I just wasn't thinking."

"Humph. Typical!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She left, and he stood there for a moment wondering what had just happened…

ASUKA

Asuka sat upright scared awake from another horrifying dream. She could place what made it so frightening. She was in her mothers arms, being loved and held close, the was other families loved and held their children, but then her mother started strangling her, and shaking her about. "No, mother, don't choke me! Why are you doing this?" She found that it wasn't the Asuka in her dream that was saying this, but the third person Asuka who was watching. Suddenly the other Asuka changed into a doll, a rag doll. She hated those dolls. So she did what her instincts told her to do…. she ran.

She found that she was aching, and that she was on the floor. She must have rolled off in the night. She heard Misato coming down the hall from the bathroom. She's up early this morning. Hmmm.

She went down the hall and started her bath. She sat soaking for a few moments wondering at her dream. What was it? What did it mean? "I know, but it frightens me…" she said aloud.

She drained the water, and returned to her room. She sat naked and looked at herself in the mirror, then started brushing her long flaming hair, and wondered why no one loved her. Then she got dressed for another day of school.

There is no one with whom I can share my feelings, is there? Why am I so ugly? Is that why they hate me? Why do I hate them? Because they are stupid? Why does it matter? Why am I still alive? Why do they care? Why does it always come down to me to be _backup_? 

She heard Shinji go into the bathroom and start his bath.

Why does Shinji get the good jobs? Why is Shinji the better pilot? Why is Shinji never mad at me? Why and I always mad at Shinji? Why do I love Shinji? 

Whoa, get a grip on yourself girl! You could never love someone like that…could you? 

She left her room, and went to the end of the hall, and listened at the door. She heard him talking to himself briefly. "I don't know…," he said. She decided to take a little chance, and opened the door ever so slowly, just enough t look in without Shinji noticing. He sat in the tub, eyes closed, thinking. While Asuka looked at him, there was a little skirmish going on in her mind.

Oh, he looks so peaceful, there, relaxing in the tub….   
What am I doing looking at Shinji in the tub? 

It's OK, he doesn't know I am here, and what he doesn't know won't hurt him… heh heh heh

You are perverted, not as much and Shinji and his stupid friends, but perverted nonetheless. 

She closed the door, and headed back to her room, and sat at her desk for a few minutes thinking over what she has seen. 

Her reverie was interrupted by the sound of Shinji going to his room.

Truly Shinji did seem relaxed and peaceful while in the tub. She had watched him one night while he was sleeping, and he tossed and turned violently in some cases, while in the throes of a nightmare. Never did he cry out though, so she didn't wake him. Too many questions she couldn't answer with cover-ups…

She stood, and timed her exit. She needed an excuse to be angry with Shinji this morning. She heard his door open, and then she stepped out, running into him, it was just to good. 

"Why don't you look where you're going, dork? Mien gott, what is your mind on? It's bad enough that I have to put up with you at work, but I have to take your crap at home, too!!!"

"I- I'm sorry. I just wasn't thinking."

Why is he so cowardly? Why doesn't he stand up for himself? 

"Humph. Typical!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

She turned on her heel, and went to the kitchen. She found a note on the table, explaining that Misato had to leave early this morning to get a head start on a prospective training program. She should be back this afternoon.

Asuka started fixing breakfast, then noticed Shinji come in. Then she noticed his clothes.

"Why aren't you dressed for school yet? If you don't hurry, you are gonna be late!"

"Huh, today's Saturday, Asuka…"

Asuka checked the calendar, and realized he was right. She had not even noticed. Now what was she going to do?

She resumed her breakfast, and thought about what this meant.

The Day

Shinji walked over and got some fish for Pen-Pen who until now was in his freezer. At the sound of the plop, he rushed out and started gulping down the morsels whole. He stopped and looked up at Shinji, realizing that he had not put a beer out. 

"If you keep it up with that beer in the morning, you are going to turn into Misato."

"Squawk"

"OK, OK, just a sec."

Shinji handed him a beer, with a disgusted look on his face.

"Somehow I don't feel like eating this morning."

Ten seconds later Asuka sat by herself at the table. What was wrong with Shinji? I sure hope he's all right…What am I thinking? I am not falling for him am I? He must be doing this to me. It's his fault. 

She finished eating and washed her dishes, then figured she would call Hikari and talk to her, maybe go somewhere, she didn't know. 

Hikari sounded as though she had just woken up, and Asuka didn't want to disturb her from sleep, so she let her go. She wondered what there was to do on a Saturday.

Flipping through the paper, she saw the advertisements for the movies that were showing now, and started skimming through them, and found one that she wanted to go see. She was about to go out, when she had the sudden urge to ask Shinji if he wanted to go too. Why do I want him to go? He would just mess up the movie for me. But her good conscience (what little of it there was at this point) won out in the end, and she went to Shinji's room to see if he wanted to come with her. It would be a good chance to at lease try to get to know what happens in that brain of his, if anything. 

Shinji heard her coming down the hall, but she didn't stop at her room, so he sat up, and turned his pillow over. It was pretty obvious he had been crying. He didn't know quite why. A feeling of hopelessness, and loneliness had descended over him earlier, and he just couldn't shake it off. So he went with it.

When Asuka opened the door, he turned away from her, and she didn't see his face. "Shinji, umm, I was going to a movie, and I just wanted to know, I mean if you aren't doing anything better, not that you…Do you want to go to the movie or not?!"

This kind of took him by surprise; she had never shown any interest in his wants or feeling before. Also the way she started out asking him, reminded him of a girl who was a little unsure about asking a guy out for a date… "Yeah." was all he could say. 

He got up, and without making eye contact, left his room, and walked beside Asuka out of the house, and locked the door behind him. "So, uh, what movie are we going to see?"  


"Well, I saw the ad for it in the paper, it called "The Long Way Home", and I thought it looked pretty good."

"What kind of movie is it? Sounds like a drama or something like that."

"Well, it looks kind of romantic, and I haven't seen a good romance movie in a long time, not since I came over here, in fact."

Shinji was feeling a little queasy. A romance? He didn't know if coming was such a good idea after all. He was not particularly fond of romance, or drama for that matter. Come to think of it, he didn't watch many movies, and didn't like most types of movies either. Oh, well, it will allow me to spend some time with Asuka, and think about my feeling concerning her. It seems kind of weird to me. What is this sudden affliction? I never seemed to notice it before, but now I don't know what to think. Ever since this morning he had been thinking, and sometimes his train of though would drift away, but it always returned to Asuka. He didn't see anything very special about her, aside from her long red hair, and her beautiful face, the way she walks down the street, the curvature of her neck…I need to pull myself together. Man, am I ok? 

They arrived at the movie theater without incident, and each paid for their own ticket. They sat down in the middle of the theater, and waited for the movie. 

The movie started, and it was pretty sad. The two main characters had been together since childhood, and their love is undeniable, but when the guy goes off to war, the woman is left alone. So she joins the Red Cross, and ends up attending him in a hospital after he is wounded. While they are there the enemy finds them, and overruns the hospital, killing nearly everyone. She makes it out, but he doesn't.

About halfway through the movie, Asuka looks out of the corner of her eye, and sees Shinji looking almost directly at her. His face is turned only slightly, but his eyes are on her. Finally he turns his attention back to the movie.

I think she saw me. I don't care. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, but I don't want to show her my true feelings. She would just laugh at me, or even worse, she would tell others, and they would laugh at me. 

Asuka, sitting right next to him noticed his movements while he was thinking this, and wondered. Why do I have put up this charade in front of him? Why do I have to trick anybody for that matter? I know who I am, am I unhappy with my personality? Am I afraid of others trying to get close to me? I see now that he isn't such a bad guy, but why didn't I see it before now? I mean, what is different about him, now? 

She returned to reality to find that they were staring at each other. They were both feeling a mixture of emotions, but neither of them knew what to do. Asuka leaned forward, and looked deeply into Shinji's eyes, Shinji was frightened at what this could mean. Would she kiss him like last time? It was a bittersweet thought. Although he didn't like the thought of dying by asphyxiation, the thought of a kiss wasn't so bad.

Asuka abruptly stood up and ran out of the theater. Leaving Shinji behind to figure out what he had done to cause her to run. He thought about chasing after her, but to what purpose. He felt deep emotions erupting inside him like a storm rolling across the sea. Such powerful feelings had he never experienced except when he was in his Eva. But those were negative feelings, destructive feelings, fear, anger, rage, despair. These were the kind of feelings that he could not explain, but that he felt were the best feeling emotions he had ever experienced.

Slowly as if he had difficulty standing, he got up, and walked out of the theater. He decided that it would be best if Asuka got home before him, so he took a roundabout route home. It took him to an old temple at the top of a hill, one that overlooked the whole city. A place where he could stop and think, a place to reflect….

Asuka watched Shinji from across the street exiting the theater. She figured the best way to figure out what was going on in his mind was to follow him, and watch what he did. She didn't know what would happen when she found out, but she was starting to see that he was a great person to be around, maybe a little short when it came to conversation, but that was the way things went.

After 2 hours of following him, she wound up in the trees, near the temple, and there was Shinji, sitting on the steps thinking about her probably. She pushed herself up a little bit to get a better look, then slipped, and fell from the limb she was perched on. After falling about 15 feet, she landed on the ground with an "Oomph!" and fell, twisting her ankle.

Shinji heard her hit the ground and her quiet curses, coming from his side, and behind him. He stood up, and went over to the edge of the trees, and then he saw her. Lying on the ground both hands clasping her ankle and foot.

"Asuka, what did you do?" The look of worry in his eyes caught Asuka off guard. He helped her up, and they started limping home.

"Asuka, I think we need to talk, but I don't know what I would say. Things are no longer as simple as they were yesterday. I don't how you would react to it, but I am going to say it anyway. I like you Asuka. I like you a lot, but I don't know what that means yet." He felt there was more to say, but had work up more courage to say it. "Surely every boy in school is attracted to your beauty, but I feel attracted to you both in body and spirit, in appearance and personality."  
  
Asuka could feel herself blushing. No one had ever told her she was beautiful quite that bluntly before. She didn't know what to do. Her mind was clouded by the multitude of thoughts, many of which were incomplete that were racing through her mind. It was getting pretty difficult to think.

"If I didn't know better I would think that you are telling me that you have feelings for me, Shinji. Yesterday I would have told you to go to hell, and I say that because things are much different today. Ever since I woke up this morning, I could not stop thinking about you, but I had to keep up the act until I knew what was going on. I guess that fell through, and I don't know what is going to happen with us, but I want you to know that I like you a lot too." She left it at that, what more could she say, without ruining the situation.

When they reached the apartment, Shinji set her down to start work on the injured ankle. While he was tending to it, Misato came in, and asked where they had been, and why Asuka had sprained her ankle.

"Well, ahh, we were coming back from Hikari's house, and we went through the park, and I was walking up some stairs, and I tripped, and fell, and it twisted, so Shinji helped me back here."

"I don't like the fact that you messed up your foot, but it was good that that was it. I want you guys to be more careful even when doing something commonplace as walking up steps, it happens to everyone, I know, but be a little more careful. OK?" 

"Yes." They said in unison.

Shinji got a tub of warm water and brought it back, along with some herbs that he took from the medicine cabinet in the bathroom and took them back to the kitchen.

Misato explained that she would be going out in about an hour. She and Ritsu and Kaji were going to catch up on some things. Then moved just around the corner to find out what was really going on.

They would be alone for a few hours. This would allow them some needed time to talk.

He put Asuka's foot into the tub after filling it with warm water. He crushed the leaves, and let them fall into the water, and soon, the water took on a brownish look. Asuka noticed the pain went away, and the swelling went down some. Shinji then got a stretchy bandage, and a towel, and took Asuka's foot from the tub, and dried it carefully with the towel. He couldn't explain it, but just touching her foot was enough to make him feel good. He could die a happy man after touching her.

Misato couldn't believe what she was seeing. This was the most patience with Shinji she had ever seen in Asuka. She wondered to herself whether it was just her imagination, or maybe that Shinji and Asuka where finally coming of age. She hurried back to her room to finish getting dressed. She decided that she wouldn't put this into her report yet, maybe it was nothing.

He wrapped the bandage around her ankle, and safety pinned it in place, and helped her up.

"Do you want to go to your room, or the living room?" he asked.

"Let's go to the living room. It would look suspicious if we both went to my room, but we need to wait for Misato to leave before we talk.

They sat and watched a report set out by Nerv on how much progress was being made on removing the 5th Angel. "Well it's about time they got back to that! I am getting a little tired of looking at it, and it stinks too. I don't see why they haven't been working on it this whole time."

"Alright guys, I'll see you later. Don't wait up for me, it'll probably be tomorrow when you see me if you don't stay up late. Bye!"

"See you later Misato!"

"Finally alone! I though she would never leave." Asuka said. She looked at Shinji, and tried to figure out what to say next."

Shinji didn't give her the chance to say it. "Asuka have you ever loved someone?"

"It's hard to say, I have known people who I though t that lived, but now I am not so sure. I mean, at the time it was the most intense emotion I had ever experienced. But now, it seems paled badly next to what I am feeling."

"I have never really loved anyone other than my mother, and I just needed to identify this feeling." Then his face turned ash gray, and he stood, and said "I think I gonna be sick." 

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	2. Together

Unnamed ****

Together

Shinji had never felt so bad in his life, with the sole exception of the first time he took LCL into his lungs. He rushed to the bathroom, and bent over the toilet, such was his nausea. Since he had not had anything to eat for a while, all he could do was dry heave, but that was just as bad. After a few seconds, he felt better, and after washing his mouth out from the bile taste, he went back to the living room, where Asuka sat alarmed at his reaction.

"What was that? I didn't think I was that repulsive."

"Nothing."

"I know that you must be nervous, Shinji, and I know you don't want to hear this, but I think it is time for you to know. When you saved me in the volcano, I had some pretty messed up emotions rolling around, and I didn't know what to think. I am glad you did what you did, but it made me feel bad that I couldn't take care of myself. I have tried to prove repeatedly that I am my own person the whole time I have been here, and I have failed each time, and I guess it just doesn't make sense to me a lot of the time. That is a big reason for my ill temper."

"Asuka, why are you telling me this? I have watched you, and I have wanted you to come to the same conclusion as I did. We can't be alone, and win. Against the Angels, against Life, against the world, we have to stick together, or we won't make it. I realized my mistake when I rushed off to kill the 12th angel. I found that by myself, I would slip up, and ended up falling into the sea of dirac. While I was in there, I had lots of time to think about stuff. It is not your fault. You need others to stand by you. You can't be the sole savior."

"Shinji, do you need me?" she pleaded? "Is that what we are about? I mean, I sit awake at night, and think about things, and I feel so alone, like I am here all by myself, and I talk and scream at people, but they just don't understand me. Is that it? Do we need each other?" She scooted closer.

"Ulp, uhh, well, I mean, yeah, no, yeah. I mean, hmmm, Asuka, I guess I had better just come out and say it. I didn't feel this way this morning, but….I love…" That was all he got out, as Asuka jumped towards him, and hugged him tightly. They stayed that way, Shinji surprised and off balance by this sudden show of affection, and Asuka crying into his shoulder. They sat as two hearts joined, beating in time, as though sharing conversation back and forth. Shinji felt as though his heart would fly out of his chest he felt so good.

Then Asuka withdrew and looked at him. "Shinji, do you remember when we practiced kissing?"  
  
"Yeah."

"I am sorry about the way I acted," She started crying again "but at the time, I felt that you were as alien, and unfeeling as Rei or Commander Ikari is, and I thought that hurting you would not affect you. But now I realize that hurting you only made you a stronger better person, and that… I am sorry about what I did to you. "

Astonished Shinji eyed Asuka in a new light, a light where she was no longer the source of anger and negative feelings in his life, but of love, and kindness.

"I…I don't know what I am supposed to be feeling, Asuka. I don't even know what I am supposed to be doing. It is hard for me to even think right now, I….I."

"Shinji?" She asked.

Shinji looked up into her blue eyes, and was transfixed.

"Hold me, just….hold me."

She fell towards him, Shinji catching her while still in the sitting position,, and held her close. He could feel her warmth mingling with his own, and her spirit coming closer to his own. He wondered about how much we can't see that goes on between couples in love. Is that what this is? Love? I haven't ever loved anyone like this, it is pleasant, peaceful, but stressful. Stressful in that you are unable to show your love enough to the person you love. There are not words enough in any language that can describe it, but that it is not enough." 

He came back to reality to fiind that while he had been thinking, Asuka had fallen asleep. She lay there breathing in and out on his chest, the gentle rise and fall of her body signaling the most precious thing in all the world. Life. Asuka's life. He still cared about the others around him, but their importance somehow paled next to hers. He wondered if this was wrong. If somehow it was immoral. That he could so easily dismiss the love and admiration of his friends.

He moved carefully out from under her, and watched for a while. Then fearing that Misato would be home any minute, he placed a arm under her knees and neck, and lifted her, with a little difficulty, from the couch, and took her to her room. He laid her gently on the bed, and turned to exit.

  
"Uhnnh, Shinji…." Asuka said, still sleeping.

Shinji smiled, and left. He went to the kitchen and fixed some Ramen, and sat doen to eat. Misato came in, and asked about Asuka.

"She was a little tired, so she went to bed early. How was your dinner?"

"It went Ok, I am glad that I get a chance to see Kaji again. It has been a long time."

"Misato, do you love Kaji?"

  
Misato thought this was a little strange for Shinji to be asking, it was usually not in his character to be inquisitive.

"Well, I was, but that was a long time ago. I guess I would have to say that the old feeling is coming back. It's not really a matter of 'Do I love him, or do I not love him'; it's more of a how much do I love him. " She said at length.

"Ok."

"Why do you ask? Is there someone special?"

"Umm, well, let me get back to you on that."

"I see. Well, I have to go to bed or I'm not gonna be ready for tomorrow morning's planning meeting concerning the new training program."

"What is this new training program? I haven't heard much about it. It is just going to be a better way for us to prepare for future Angel attacks by using the Magi computers to simulate possible Angel tactics, and abilities. That way, we can at least be a step ahead, and be prepared for them."

"Ok, well, I'll see you tomorrow then. G'night."

"Good night, Shinji."

Misato left, and Shinji ate in silence. After finishing up, he cleaned his plate, and put it way. He figured that he should go ahead, and go to bed, so he went to his room, and got undressed for his bath. He didn't notice the large lump under the covers on his bed.

He went to the bathroom, and took his bath, and returned to his room, dresed for sleep, and climbed into bed. He was about to start thinking about Asuka when hands wrapped around his chest from behind. He started, and turned around and looked into the familiar blue eyes of Asuka.

"Wha…are you doing in my bed?" He asked her softly.

"I just wanted to spend some close-time with you, it is lonely being in that room all by myself, and I wanted to be close for a while."  


"I don't feel comfortable with sex right now, if that's what you mean. I don't know if it's something that is wrong with me, or what, but I just don't want to."

"I know what you mean, Shinji, I don't want to right now either. When the time is right we'll know, Ok?"

She moved closer to him, and buried her face in his chest, and nuzzled close to him. All was right in the world in that moment, all was right with the world. He fell asleep, and that night, the nightmare did not plague him. For as long as he had been here, he had had some kind of unpleasant dream every night. Tonight was a respite. Tonight was real rest. Tonight he was in love.

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	3. Whipped?

Chap 2 ****

Whipped?

Shinji woke up rested and at ease. That had been the best night of sleep that he had had in a long time. Since he arrived in fact. He looked around and found that Asuka had already gotten up. Then he had a disturbing thought. Omigosh, I hope Misato didn't come in to say bye, and see her here. But if she did, I would have heard something about it I would think.

He got out of bed, and dressed, and went to the kitchen, where he saw Asuka making breakfast. She looked up, and smiled, remembering the peaceful Shinji asleep in his bed when she woke up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and tried to get his bearings.

"Where's Misato…"

"She left already. She said that she didn't know when she would be home, because the meetings may go quickly, or they may drag on after dark."

"What did you plan on doing today? Another movie? Need some climbing lessons?" he chuckled.

"Hey! That's not a very nice thing to day!. Be good. Besides, No, I don't need climbing lessons, not that I could with my ankle, but I thought I might put some weight on it today by going shopping." Heh heh, good excuse, Asuka "But I didn't know whether you would want…"

"Yeah, I'll go!"

He saw the surprise in her eyes. "That is if it's ok with you."

"Uhh, well, Ok, I didn't know you would be that willing to go out shopping with me. Most guys don't do that kind of thing, even if it is with someone they like."

"Well, I just realized that I don't know you as well as I could, and that I should spend some time to _get_ to know you. Besides, I need groceries, because pickins are getting pretty slim around here now."

Asuka and Shinji finished their breakfast, talking about all sorts of things, fearing to touch on the subject that was most on their minds, fearing to disturb that peaceful moment. Finally Asuka had to ask Shinji about it.

"Shinji, would you go out with me?"

Shinji choked on some tea that he had been drinking. "I, well you see…yeah?

Ever my unsure Shinji. She looked at him and smiled, placing her hand over his. "Great. First thing We're gonna do is get you some clothes. There is more to life than White shirts, and black slacks, yknow?" 

Man she can jump from one subject to another pretty fast!"Well, I never paid very much attention to fashion. Being in school most of the time when I lived with my uncle kind of got me in the habit of wearing the same thing every day. Even now the only other thing I wear is my plug suit."

"I know, and that is exactly why we need to get you some more stuff to wear. That plug suit my look good as some kind of high tech skin thingy, but it is just not fashion. I have a little extra money, lets see what we can do."

After cleaning up, they headed out, and spent most of the morning going through stores, Shinji trying things on, Asuka giving him thumbs up or down, and just window shopping. They held hands, and even kissed once or twice, but then disaster struck (at least in Asuka's mind). There was Touji and Hikari, holding hands and coming down the walk. Asuka tried to keep away, but Touji saw her and Shinji anyway.

"Hey Shinji! What's going on? Oh my god! The newlyweds. Er, what the… Oh no, Shinji your whipped." He let a groan out, and then turned to get hit on the back of the head by Hikari.

"That's no way to talk to anyone." She whispered fiercly. "Asuka, this is a surprise. I would never have thought that you and Shinji would have something going on without telling me first."

"Shinji!" Touji called for Shinji and waved him over for a conversation in private. "What are you doing? That's the enemy!" he said motioning towards Asuka.

"She's not like that, yesterday, something just kind of just happened to us, and we ended up like this. I don't know what happened, I oke up, and realized that I loved her. She changed a lot yesterday, too."

"I guess, for you and her to get along like that. I remember last Friday, she would beat you just for touching her. Now you're holding hands! Must have been some change."

Asukacame over, and interupted. "I am taking him away, you can have him back tomorrow at school. But right now he's mine." That said, she and Shinji started walking away.

"Sorry, Touji. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Hikari."

"I think we might want to go back home. I don't want to have to stop anymore and talk to anyone about us. It's not that I don't like our relationship, I just don't like talking about it with others, Shinji."

"I know, I think I feel the same way."

When they got home, Misato had just gotten in and went to take a bath. They could hear the water running, and there was a line of clothes leading strait to the bathroom.

"Hmm, looks Misato had a rough day, if she's taking a bath in the middle of the afternoon." Asuka observed, picking up the first article of clothing, a shoe. "Tell me something was she always this messy?"

"It was ten times this bad when I got here. There was junk every where. Mostly liquor bottles and beer cans."

"Woof, I am glad I wasn't the first person in here after her."

They heard a grund and a moan from the bathroom, and Asuka pretty well knew what that meant. "looks like it wasn't that bad of a day after all. She must not know we're here."

"I don't like this. It's almost like we're spying on her."

"It's not that bad, I just want to know what she's fanaticizing about."

Asuka moved close to the bathroom door, and put her ear next to it. She could almost feel the heavy breathing coming from the room beyond. "Oh, unnnh, Shinji!"

Shinji's eyes bugged out so far they almost hit Asuka in the back of the head. Asuka grabbed Shinji, and hauled him out of the apartment, and boy was she mad! She spun him around, so she could look at his face. "What was THAT all about?!?"  


"I…I…I never knew Misato would think about me that way! I haven't done anything with her, if that's what you mean. I mean, I am just 14 years old, what could she see in me?"

Asuka had to admit it was pretty good logic. But still, what was she fantcizing about Shinji? She turned and, still hold Shinji's hand (in a death grip) went back inside, this time closing the door hard enough to hopefully pull Misato out of her little erotic dreamworld.

After sitting in the living room for a few minutes, watching TV, Asuka wondered if Misato was going to come out. Then she appeared, with a towel around her, and on her head.

"Oh, hi guys, how were things? Where do you go?"

"Oh, we just went shopping, and got Shinji some new clothes." Asuka knew that that was a mistake just as it came out. The old her would never have gone shopping with Shinji, never mind, buying HIM clothes.

"Well, that's nice Asuka, uhh, well, I am gonna get dressed, and hang around here tonight. Kaji must have run out of money, or something, because he didn't offer to go out tonight. Heh, heh."

Misato

Misato turned and went to her room, and started dressing. She didn't know what to think about this whold Shinji and Asuka thing. She had woken up this morning, and went to Asuka's room to tell her she might be home earlier, but don't count on it, but found that Asuka was not there. She headed to Shinji's room to see that he was still there, but his door was locked; a lock that had only been installed (on nearly every door) at Asuka's suggestion. She called to Shinji, and there was a grunt, and she explained the situation with herself, but that was all she heard out of him. He was usually pretty responsive.

Was there a possibility that there was more to that than met the eye?

And then last night, him being so careful, and protective of Asuka's foot! Shinji had never displayed quite that level of care with chores or things that she gave him to do.

And now, Shinji and Asuka were shopping together? It didn't take her long to surmise what was happening. Shinji and Asuka had fallen in love. That could be a dangerous thing she thought. They are both EVA pilots, and the relationship would affect their piloting. She didn't know whether it would be a good or bad impact, but it would never the less change their attack patterns.

She stepped out of her room, and into the living room, where the two were watching a gameshow.

  
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, You both have new synch tests tomorrow, I know how much you hate them, but we have to see how your piloting is coming. Asuka, you may think you are off the hook now, but your synch is still lower than it was when you came here. You really need to work on the that for this one. 

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	4. Just Play

JUST PLAY ****

JUST PLAY

"Shinji?" Asuka called down the hall. "Suppers done, some and eat."

"Okay, just a second. Damn homework. I still don't see why I should have to save the world, and go to school. As if saving the world weren't bad enough." He said to himself. " "Or did you think I hadn't seen these report cards?' she says. Humph."

"Why are you doing it? We're on Spring break, remember? Like there is still a spring to have a break for."

Shinji got up, and left for the kitchen. When he got there, a happily humming Asuka was placing the last of several dishes on the table, and sitting down. Looked in the biggest of these dishes, and saw that she had made stew. Stew. Hmm, I had not even heard of stew until a couple of weeks ago. I always thought it was called _soup_. 

Asuka did a waiter impression. "Tonight's main course is Beef Stew. We have some potatoes and carrots and steamed tomatoes and I was even able to find some bay leaves for flavor. If we had some deer meat I could have made Venison, even better. Let's eat."

They wolfed it down, and enjoyed the meal. Shinji had never had anything quite like it. It had a mellow round taste that he just couldn't place. It was good, and it disappeared quickly. Afterwards, stuffed and content, they went to the livingroom to watch some TV.

"Shinji, you still play the cello right?" 

"Yeah, sometimes. When nobody is around, and I am feeling a little depressed. Why?"  


"Would you play something for me?"

"Well…I… I'm not very good, I never played _for_ somebody."

"Oh, come on. Give me a break. If you keep saying you aren't any good, you won't be good. Now, you…are…good. There you go. You're good. Now play." 

Shinji stood, and went to his room for his cello. Returning he saw that Asuka had reclined on the couch, and was waiting for him to start.

"Now keep in mind, I haven't played since that day we first kissed." He said. "I am trying hard to for get that day." He stated under his breath.

He sat and put the cello between his legs, and started warming up the strings, then stopped. 

"OK, what do you want to hear?"

"I don't know, just _play_."

He sat for a moment, and thought. Then rather than pick a song that he knew, he just started to play, working the scale a couple of times, and then moving back and forth through the notes and letting his mind wander. He played for many minutes, and when he finally came back to reality, he found that he was breathing hard, and sweating, and it was getting harder to play. He decided it was time to stop, so he wound the music down, and finished off. 

Looking over at the clock, he found that it was 8:00. He had played for over an hour straight. He looked over at Asuka, and found her asleep, a slight smile on her face, he brow furrowed. She looked so peaceful, he felt at ease just looking at her. He wondered what to do.

He set the cello down, and went to the kitchen for a glass of water. When he returned, he found that Asuka had rolled over while he was gone, and was now lying on her stomach. Now how am I supposed to get her to her room? He sat and wondered for a few minutes, then Asuka abruptly rolled over again. Hmm, that's better. He stood, and picked her up. This is getting easier. Probably because I do it so much. He started towards her room, but just then Misato came in, drunk apparently, and saw him.

"Aw, is ew pudding Asuka to bed? Dasso sweet! Heh heh. Be sure to tucker in! Yes." 

I sometimes wonder about that woman. I am sure she means well, but please 'Be sure to tuck her in?'

He plodded down the hall, and opened her door. He set her down ever so gently, and straightened back up again. She was so beautiful lying there at his feet. The unattainable fiery pilot asleep from the music he played. She stirred a little, and awoke.

"Shinji? Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. You played good, Shinji."

His face reddened a few shades from the compliment. "Don't worry about falling asleep. That just told me that it was good music." He kneeled beside her, and stroked her face with his fingertips ever so slightly.

"Did Misato come back yet?"

"Yeah. She scares me sometimes. One of these days she is going to do something while she's drunk, and regret it for the rest of her life. She came in, and stumbled off to bed."

He looked up, and traced his vision around the room, then suddenly he was off balance, and fell on the futon beside Asuka, his head hit something really soft. Then he realized he wasn't beside Asuka, he was on her. He opened his eyes, and looked at her. She held his head there with her hands, looking at him, and thinking about what their love could mean. It had all happened so quickly. They had known each other for months, and now suddenly their relationship turned into a _relationship_. 

Shinji fell asleep there listening to the soft 'Lub-dub." of Asuka's heart. It lulled him into sleep, and he dreamed of her all night long.

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	5. Da&*ed Plug Suits

DAMNED PLUG SUITS ****

DAMNED PLUG SUITS

Misato crept out of bed stretching her muscles, and arching her back. She was almost like a cat. If she could have put her foot behind he ear, she would probably have scratched too. She got up, and brushed her teeth, and hair. Then went to Shinji's room to wake him. 

She closed the door. Don't tell me. He is in Asuka's room, I would be willing to bet. That little seductress. I just hope she is not leading him on, just to dump him at her earliest convenience. 

She opened Asuka's door, and found Shinji and Asuka embraced asleep, but at lease they were both halfway covered. She shook her head, and wondered how to wake them. She got an idea, closed the door, and went down the hall.

"Shinji!!!! Asuka!!!! It's time to get up! We have Synch tests today!" Then she hurried to the living room to listen to the scrabbling Shinji trying to get to his room as quickly as possible.

Misato walked silently down the hall, and entered her room to get dressed.

Shinji was dressing as quickly as he could, hoping that Asuka and He would not be found out. He had been sleeping peacefully just 30 seconds ago, and now he was preparing to go to work.

Asuka lazily dressed, wondering what she should wear. Shinji could get by with his wardrobe; all he had was white shirts and black pants. She didn't see how he could wear it. He could wear some of the stuff she bought for him, but that was doubtful. He probably would only wear it for special things. Going to work and school was just to ordinary to waste on his new clothes.

She picked her yellow flower print dress, and slipped it on, and then picked a pair of open toed shoes. She left her room, and went to the living room to wait. Misato was already there, and Asuka caught her looking at her a little funny a couple of times, but couldn't really place the emotion behind it.

Shinji picked his customary blue undershirt, white shirt, and black pants. Then picking up his headphones left his room. He found Misato and Asuka in the living room.

"Ready? OK, lets go!" Misato said cheerily.

They piled into the car, and drove almost totally silently to NERV HQ. The traffic was light, and they got there pretty quickly.

The car train rushed them down into the Geofront, red warning lights whizzing by, punctuated by the loud whirring 

"What's so special about these synch tests, anyways? I thought they were the same thing every time." Asuka stated about halfway through the trip.

"Well, they are, for your part. All you have to do is just do the same as always. Synch with the simulation body, and then relax. On the other end, they will be loading all of your data into the Magi to be processed, and then it will be implemented in our new training programs."

"What is so new about them? We aren't going to be doing live training anymore?"

"Well some. But the rest of the time we will be doing simulation. Ritsuko had finished with the base programs for the simulation. She will start the filler stuff in a few days. It is going to simulate just about everything. The Magi is working overtime, extrapolating possible Angel designs that we haven't thought of. These will be loaded into the program, and you will be training against them. We plan to start you off against previously fought angels to get you used to the system. Then you will start with the new 'Neo-Angels'. It sounds like a pretty effective plan." Misato said at length.

"Well, I guess, but I don't see why we have to do more tests for some dumb program."

"The program, like I said, will simulate everything. Even the feelings you get from the Eva, without the harmful situations you might find yourselves in."

"Oh, so not only will we be fighting the Angels, but we will be experiencing the pain and mind altering effects from synchronization. Great!"

Misato let is stay at that. She didn't want to talk about it. She had originally lobbied for that particular part of the program to be left out. It should be like a video game. Just video and audio stimulus. But no! It has to be as real as possible.

The car train emerged, and the brown yellow light spilled into the car. They descended a little farther, then moved the car into the parking lot near HQ. Shinji and Asuka headed for the locker rooms, while Misato went for her office.

The locker rooms were empty as normal. Shinji felt a little apprehensive about the test, but was glad that he was alone to let it out. He was always nervous about the Eva. It was such a mystery. A mystery that no one was willing to tell him about. He could sense something there. Something just on the verge of tangibility. It scared him. Not knowing what it was, he was frightened of it. It was familiar, but he couldn't place it. Then there was the LCL. It had the consistency of water, but it smelled like blood. The cockpit was comfortable, but he didn't like the way it comforted him. It was that same feeling.

The plug suit squeaked, and made funny sounds, like plastic rubbing against plastic. He pulled the loose fitting thing on, then vacuum-fitted it tightly to his skin. He was thankful for it. This same type of suit had kept him alive just a few more minutes in the 12th Angel for him to…to… to what? He didn't remember exactly what happened. He could see it, but he couldn't control it. The Eva ripping it's way out of the Angel violently, blood spewing every where.

He suppressed a shudder. It was frightening also to think that he was piloting something that was prone to berzerker episodes. He wondered about that. Why was his Eva the only one that did it? Why was his Eva the only one that accepted it's pilot so easily. Why was his the only one that had activated itself with no power attached or stored in it's reserve?

He stood, and left the locker room, standing outside in the hall. He waited for Asuka. Then He waited longer. After a little more, he decided she might not be coming out. He moved over to the Women's door, and cracked it. "Asuka, are you alright?"

"Yeah. I just don't feel like hurrying. Are you going to stand there, or are you coming in?"

The question surprised him. He had not figured on entering, but then, he had never been invited to the women's locker room before. He opened the door enough to admit him, then sat down out of line of site from Asuka.

"What are you doing, Shinji?"

"I didn't want to alarm you, and I didn't think you wanted anyone watching you dress, so I just sat on the other side of these lockers."

"Dumkopf! It's not like we don't know each other. Come over here so I can see who I am talking to!"

Shinji moved to the other side where he saw Asuka pulling her own plug suit on. This was not the first time he had seen her in the nude. However it was the second. The first was when they had to do the clean room environment tests, and were forced to strip and wash, and _then_ get in their plugs. Shinji had grown a lot that day…

"Asuka, " he said gazing upon her, "you are the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed."

"Shinji, I am sorry that I have treated you the way I have. My first reaction to you coming into the women's locker room is one of anger, but then it turns to love."  


"I thought we went over this already. The things that happened in the past are exactly that. It's in the past. It doesn't matter. I just-"

"Shut up and kiss me, stupid. For good luck or something."

Asuka stood up, and walked over to a stunned Shinji. She leaned forward, and kissed him, reaching with her right hand behind his head.

This time it felt different. She didn't want to break the kiss. The heat rising in her body forced her to stop, and she looked at Shinji surprised. Silently she walked from the locker room, her mind a torrent of feelings and emotions too new to understand.

Shinji watched her leave, unable to figure out what just happened. He couldn't figure it out. He had felt something. Something fleeting, that he couldn't identify. He stood there for a few minutes, staring at his reflection in the mirror.

"Would all Project E prime personnel please report to the Pribnow box, repeat would all Project E prime personnel please report to the Pribnow box."

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	6. The Test

The Test, Dreams ****

The Test, Dreams

Shinji ran from the locker room, and headed for the box. As he entered, he noted that Asuka, Rei, Ritsuko, Misato, Maya, Hyuga, and Shiga were already there.

"Alright, lets begin. Today you will be participating in yet another synchronization test. This one will be aimed at recording your pertinent synchronization data for the training program that is still in the works. This test will be longer than normal, so get set for a long day. It should last about 4 hours. I will have extra nutrients pumped in with the LCL. Remember, all you are responsible for is Synchronization. We will be doing the rest. All right, any questions? No? Let's go then."

Rei, Asuka, and Shinji left, and headed to the ready room. There they would be loaded into the Pilot console, and inserted into their entry plugs.

"What were the results of the last test again? I couldn't find the report at home." Misato asked Ritsuko.

"Shinji rose a little to 67%, Asuka had 64%, and Rei surprisingly had stayed at 59%. I don't know what has happened to her. It's like she refuses to get any better. We'll see what happens this time."

"Entry plugs are ready. Inserting entry plugs."

"Insertion complete. Charging LCL."

"Begin first connection. Charging main power supplies. Main umbilical is connected."

"Begin A-10 nerve connection. Impulse to absolute borderline approaching 1.0."

"0.9 0.7, 0.5, 0.3, 0.2, 0.1, Absolute border line reaches A-10 nerve connection active."

"Connecting primary nerve impulses. Synchronization ratio's are as follows: Unit 00- 60% Unit 01- 69%, and Unit 02- 66%."

"Flex the hands a couple of times guys, so we can check nerve impulse translation, and nerve motor control."

The hands on all three bodies lifted, and rotated a few times, Shinji's even making fists and popping it's huge knuckles. "Shinji this is no time to show off."  
  
"Yes Ma'am."

"Now, I want you all to relax, and let this run it's course. Go to sleep if you want, but don't do anything active, and don't concentrate on anything, OK? Maya, note that the test began at exactly 9:03 and 43 seconds."

"OK" they said.

Shinji was staring out the viewport when a window popped up on his HUD. Asuka sat there, talking for a second, then the sound came in.

"Hey Shinji. What the?"

She worked something around, and then her voice caught up to her visual. "Shinji I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry about what happened in the Locker room. I shouldn't have done that."

"Don't worry about it now. We can talk about it when we're finished. It's alright, I liked it."

Her face brightened, and she smiled. Then slowly she reached up and turned off the window.

Shinji sat back, and let himself relax. In a few minutes sleep over took him. He dreamt of himself in total blackness, curled up, naked. He sat there for a few minutes wondering what to do, when he heard Asuka.

"At least I can dream about him like this."

Whoa? Hey. This is my dream, why can't I control it?" Suddenly he had his plug suit on, and he turned to find Asuka standing there, her plug suit forming around her.

"Man these dreams are strange. I wonder if it's due to the fact that we are synched with the Evas right now." He said.

"I don't know, Ritsuko told me this morning that it might be a little different this time because of the way the Magi were analyzing us."  


"Wait, Ritsuko told you. You aren't real though."

"Well this is my dream, that make you the bogus one."

"No, no, this is MY dream. I am the one dreaming of you."

"Well, I beg to differ, third child. Maybe we are both having the dream."

Meanwhile back in the box. "This is weird. Dr. Akagi, the synchros on Unit's 01 and 02 have just dipped about 10 points, then jumped another 30 points! Right now they are both 90% and rising at the exact same speed."

Ritsuko wheeled over to the console, and studied the data. "How fast are the ratios going up?"

"About 1 point every 4 to 5 minutes."

"What about Unit 00, has she done anything?"

"Negative, the ratio is the same as when it started. Should we abort?"

"No, keep an eye on this, but don't do anything yet. This may be a big advantage."

"Yes, ma'am."

Back in the dream world Shinji sat talking to Asuka. "What did you mean when you said 'At least I can dream about him like this.' What was that?"

Asuka felt the heat rising in her face. "I…Well, you and I never…. DO anything, and I just, you know."

He knew what she meant. "I never thought about that until you kissed me this morning. Until then, you had not made me feel that that was proper. But now, it's…different."

She looked at him, solemnly, taking him in. "Shinji, let's go somewhere else." Abruptly the scenery changed to the Shinto temple, just outside the city. They sat on the steps, and watched a lazy afternoon sun slowly sink towards the horizon. Asuka was dressed in her yellow dress again; Shinji found that he was dressed in some bluejeans and a T-shirt that Asuka had bought him.

"I wonder how this happened. I mean, does everybody who is in love do this, and they don't relate it to others?"

"No," Asuka said, "I am sure we would have heard about it by now. Besides, a world where you can do anything you want would be just too addicting to the general populace. They'd never wake up! Speaking of which…." A red blanket, stitched with the Nerv insignia, formed on the grass next to her, and a basket of food materialized. "I wonder if you can feel and taste everything that happens here too." She picked a grape off the bunch that was hanging out of the basket, and popped it in her mouth. "Mmmm, it's so real tasting. Like my mind is getting more out of it here than in reality." 

"Maybe the mind just over compensates."

Asuka sat back up, and moved closer to Shinji, then poked him in the side with her finger. He exploded with laughter, as if she had been tickling him relentlessly. "Hey! What'd you do that for?!" He said between laughs.

"I was just testing something." She said lying down on the blanket. She stretched, and yawned.

Shinji couldn't help but get aroused by seeing her like this. She was beautiful lying there stretched out before him. Loving life. A complete turn-around from just 2 weeks ago, when she hated life and so many other things. He figured she still had things she hated, but he had interceded, and made them bearable. He lay beside her, and thought about what she'd said about him, when she entered his dream. Then steeling himself, he rolled over, and moved in.

Shinji came closer to her, watching her eyes watch his own. She stopped breathing in apprehension. When their lips met, his mouth was numb with pleasure like it was sensory overload. He kissed her deeply, and passionately, hoping for it never to end. When his mind cleared from the first wave, he found that his shirt was off, and Asuka was bare to her waist. But he didn't care. That just helped the situation. He grabbed her shoulders, and rolled over, pulling her on top of him, moving his hands down her back to her waits crossing he arms over the small of her back, and pulling her closer to him.

Asuka broke the kiss, and leaned forward to his ear, and whispered ever so softly. "Are you ready?"  
  
Shinji could only nod. He didn't think he could form words in his mouth yet.

Asuka shifted a little, and the cloth disappeared under his hands. He found a fire in his loins that if not satiated soon would burn him. Asuka pulled her knees up under her, and sat up. She looked at him like she was…hungry, and suddenly he was inside her. The warmth enveloped him, and the sensations, were too much, his vision clouded as his eyes wend out of focus.

Asuka was pushing herself up and down with her legs as fast as she could. Her mind didn't need to communicate that to her, it was a reflex. All she could do was experience, and hope not to pass out from the pleasure.

Back in the Box. "Dr Akagi! The synchros are going off the graph! It can't even read them they are at such high levels!"

"Let me see that, put it on the main view screen!" She looked it over, and sure enough, the line on both Units 01 and 02 went right past the 235. The numerical readout had them at 359. "That is unbelievable! Is Rei's still the same?"

"Yeah, as far as I can tell she hasn't done anything at all."

"Show me the internal camera's I want to know what they are doing."

The views appeared on the screen, fuzzed a little, then cleared again. They showed interesting scenes. Shinji was lying back pushing his hands as hard into the sides of the chair as he could, a look of pleasure and strain on his face. The one from Unit 02 was even stranger. Asuka was kneeling on the seat bouncing up and down, head back moaning softly to herself.

In the dream Shinji felt himself building up. A soft, wet, warmth had ready covered his lower are, and ran down one leg. Asuka had already climaxed once, and wondered how many times it would happen, just then another power climax took her, and she felt Shinji pump into her. She collapsed atop him, breathless. She lay like that for a few seconds, then put her legs out behind her again.

The screens showed Asuka grunt a couple of time, and collapsed face first, eyes still closed, on the pilot's seat. Shinji just relaxed, and put his arms over his body as though her were hugging someone.

"What the hell? What are their life signs like?"  
  
"Pulse for Shinji is 165, blood pressure is pretty high, but more like a hard workout than anything else. Asuka's pulse is 180, comparable blood pressure. Both have low blood sugar, their suits say, but that might be due to the inactivity, and no breakfast. Other than that they are ok. Nerve impulse shows that there is increased activity in the right anterior cortex region, but that could be because of the synchronization."  
  
"All right. Wake them up, but don't say anything to them about their ratios. We will continue the test."

Maya switched to a channel that would connect her to Shinji and Asuka, but not Rei. "Shinji, Asuka, wake up. You need to wake up."

In the dreamstate, Asuka heard the insistent voice calling to wake up, then her mind felt pressure, just a little, like when you are about to go to sleep, but you try to stay awake. She felt herself slipping back to her conscious self. 

Shinji didn't go so easily, he heard the voice, but turned over, and grabbed the ground so it wouldn't pull him away. Finally he flew back to himself, awakening in the LCL, more drained than usual, and found that he had Maya in the window on his display. 

"You guys need to wake up. The test is about half way over, and you need to stay still for a little while longer. Asuka, you need to get back in your seat. This time stay there. You might have upset the test."

Her window disappeared, and was replaced by Asuka's. There was a flashing secured sign blinking at the bottom. "Where you there? At the temple I mean? I woke up to find myself lying on the seat like I ended up on top of you. That was weird."

"Yeah, I was there. You and me need to…talk. Yeah. When this is over."

"Yeah, I look forward to it."

The rest of the test went off without a hitch. Asuka and Shinji had improved by about 12 point each, not to mention reaching all time highs of 359. 

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	7. Shower Asuka and Afterwards

****

Shower, Asuka and Afterwards

They exited the plugs, and dried off. Shinji made his way to the locker room, and changed putting his plug suit in the cleaner. The LCL would be washed off, batteries recharged, and reservoirs drained so he could wear it again.

The cleaner whirred. Shinji stepped into the shower, letting the warm water overtake him. He washed the gunk from his body and the events from his mind. He was at peace, calm. 

He heard the door open, and figured one of the staff had come in. When he finished, he got out of the shower, and Asuka was sitting on a bench, still in her plug suit.

"Asuka? What are you doing here? I don't think I am up for another bout this soon."

"No stupid, that's not what I'm here for. Start getting dressed, we can talk."

"Ok. Exactly what are we going to talk about. There are a lot of topics that I can think of."

"Well, for starters, what about this whole telepathic-dreamscape thing? I mean, I had never experienced anything like that before. And the way Maya was looking at me when I woke up, and the position I was in, makes me think that I did the same things in reality that I did in the dream."

"It was new. I think we ought to try it some more, but not at such a vulnerable time. "

Asuka thought for a second then said "Maybe tonight!" She grinned.

"Well, speaking of that, what about our little thing?"

"What about it, you didn't like it?"

"No, it is the greatest thing I have ever experienced."

"Well then what about it?"

"Well, it just took me by surprise, and I didn't want this to turn solely into a sexual relationship. I mean, I want to do it again, but I want to take it slow. We haven't actually had sex yet either. That was just dream. It felt more than real, but it just my mind. I want to do it with my body too."

"I know. I want you. And I like that thought, but I don't ant to wait too long. The urge is there, and it's building all the time. My body knows the difference, and it is not satisfied." She said shaking her head. She stood up, and walked to the door. "I'll be out in a while."

Shinji watched after her, and thought as he dressed over the things that had taken place this morning. Actually its about 1:00 now. I am connected to Asuka. She is connected to me. We can communicate on another plane of existence, and have both experienced our first sex. It's been a busy day, and it isn't even over yet. Are things going too quickly? It's like I am being rushed through as quickly as I can be to meet a deadline. A deadline set for a procrastinator. Like he's trying to get it done at the last second. He laughed that this thought.

After he finished dressing, he collected his headphones and player, and left the locker room to get a drink.

When he got to the lounge, he found Kaji sipping on a drink at one of the tables.

"Hey, Shinji. What are you so happy about? Get some from Asuka?"

Shinji blushed, and shook his head. "No, I am just having a pretty good day. What are you doing today." He got a drink and sat down.

"Well you know this and that."

He always has been pretty secretive about what he does. All I can tell is that he bums around. I never see him do anything, and he always has about 2 days of growth on his face. 

"Well, I am a little anxious to get home. I have some important things to get done. Why did you ask about Asuka, anyway?"

"Well, it was just a joke. I mean, you two would make a great couple, if you could just put her flames out. Maybe not out, just down a little. "

"I know what you mean. She has been a little more subdued lately."

"Does that mean you're gonna make a pass at her?"

Shinji choked on his drink. "Ah, wha, wha, no. I mea, well. Let me think about it. How about that?"

"Suits me. At least then she won't be hanging all over me. I have my eyes set for a bigger prize."

It didn't take Shinji much to figure out what he was talking about. Misato and Kaji had been becoming close lately.

Asuka came a few minutes later followed my Misato. "Shinji, you coming?"

"Yeah, where are we going? I thought we might go out to eat, and then go home for some relaxation. Even though you relaxed in the test, I know that it was a little tiring."

She has no idea. 

"Yeah, Ok, I'll see you later Kaji."

"Good bye."

After a large meal at an outdoor vendor, they went home for a short afternoon siesta. Asuka found Shinji in his bed asleep, and curled up next to him.

High above the little blue planet the Angel hung silently contemplating what it had done. It had made two of it's adversaries totally hate each other. It had closed in on Earth and came pretty close to it about a local week before. It had selected its targets, and while they slept, changed a few things around. It had taken all of it's power to do that, so it couldn't have been anything big, like make them unable to synchronize with the Angel-copy-things that they had taken as their weapons. It couldn't tell right off hand what all it might have affected, but it knew beyond a doubt that it had killed any friendship between the softhearted boy and the fiery girl. If it could have laughed, it would have.


	8. Revelations

****

Revelations

"The analysis shows a large mental power drain right here. This is about 7 minutes after Shinji fell asleep from what the heart monitor said. The nerve connection band recorded R.E.M. that started at this time. This shows that when he started dreaming, his connection with the Eva suddenly experienced a momentary power loss. His brain waves look fairly normal for this cycle of sleep, but take a look at this." Ritsuko placed a copy of Asuka's brainwave patterns over Shinji's. "They are identical. It could be that they were connected not only to their Evas, but also to each other. This presents an advantage if we can control it. After they linked, they probably shared their combined power. Their synch ratios both rose more than hundreds of percent from their starting values. They were also identical. However, when they were awakened, the ratios dropped back to normal levels."

"This would give us an edge over the angels. If we were able to expand A.T. field in proportion to these levels of synchronization, they would be nearly impenetrable. " Fuyutsuki stated. He arched his eyebrow at the sight of the highest ratios. "359? My god! That is incredible. Are you sure of your findings?"

"Yes. Are you going to alert Commander Ikari?"

"Yes. His trip to the US, to placate the rumors of the second branch disappearance, couldn't come at a more inconvenient time. Here we have a great discovery, and he is not here to enlighten us with its potential uses." Fuyutsuki said matter of factually.

"To be sure. I think that this should be kept under wraps for a while. We can run some tests between the two of them, but they have to appear totally benign. I don't know how much we are going to get out of it, but it should prove interesting."

"Will this put us further behind on the Human Completion Project? HCP is our priority. True it relies on the Eva project finishing at a certain time, but I feel that that time is rapidly approaching."

"No. We are on schedule now, and should stay that way even with this new development. HCP will be implemented as planned."  
  
"I don't know how he is going to pull it off. And to think that the future of humanity will then rest on them!"

"I know." Akagi stopped, and stared into space thinking. "A frail unsure boy. And a hotheaded ambitious girl. How did he pick her anyway?"

"He didn't. He engineered her mental stance. That is all that he needed. It is a shame how he went about it though."

Far away in the apartment that was Misato's house, Shinji and Asuka slept. Misato had woken in the middle of the afternoon, and went to his room to check on him, and think over the images she had seen from during their synch tests. When she got there, she found that he was not alone, but nuzzled up to Asuka. She found that she did not think of her as so much a seductress now, as she a companion. They look peaceful there like that. Come to think of it, that is the most peaceful I have ever seen Shinji.

She decided that the relationship would not be interrupted by her, or by the personnel at Nerv, mostly because she would work to keep it from being common knowledge. She felt that Shinji was owed at least this from life, since his had not been easy by any standards. As she left, she noticed a strange smile on Shinji's face.

In the dream world, Shinji smiled broadly. He had found Asuka there again. They walked along a sandy beach, and let the waves roll over their feet. The scenery changed to a high cliff-side, and they watched the ocean crash on the rocks below. 

Then a strange thing began to happen. Shinji and Asuka were unable to control the scenery for a few seconds. It changed from the cliff-side to a large cavern below Nerv HQ. The words Terminal Dogma were stamped on the door. A large red spear against a red cross impaled a huge white body. Yellow fluid that smelled like LCL ran down at the bottom. The face of the being ha a large triangle on it and seven eyes. Shinji and Asuka had an overwhelming sensation of searching, searching for this being. Something was willing to lay down its life, to reach this goal. 

Then the scenery shifted to a bleak landscape. Snow and ice covered as far as the eye could see. A single lone building sat on the ice, dark against the blinding glare. Then an Evangelion that they had never seen before rose from the ice. It was different. Not Eva, but Angel. It's armor shone with the force of the sun, melting ice around it with its intensity. Then it exploded. They were unhurt, the blast went right through them, but they didn't feel it. 

They saw a man, at the last second, setting the rocket assist on a pod about 6 feet long, then closing the hatch, and setting it off. Then the blast overtook him too. It zoomed out showing the old continent of Antarctica. Engulfed in flame, ice actually burning, turning from solid to plasma form, without even bothering to go through the other forms first. Then they were back on the cliff as though nothing had happened.

Shinji woke, sweat dripping from his face. Next to him Asuka woke as well, obviously shaken by what she had seen. "Second impact."

"What was that other thing? The one with all the eyes?"

"I don't know, but it scared me a little. Look, I had better go. Misato will be up soon, and I have to think about this stuff." Asuka got up, and groggily made her way to her room, quietly shutting the door behind her.

He got up, and went to the bathroom, and took a bath. Afterwards, while he was drying off, a tapping sounded at the door. "Just a minute." The tapping came again. "I said just a minute!" He hurried up, and got dressed. Opening the door, he found an impatient penguin, giving him the evil eye, rushing into the bathroom, to draw a warm bath. "Weird bird. Never have seen what Misato sees in him. Well at least he can't stand Misato's cooking the same way I can't." He was reminded of an unconscious Pen-pen, lying on the floor after tasting Misato's curry.

That night, he made dinner, but none of them were too hungry because of the large lunch they had had earlier that day. So they retired to the living room. They were in the middle of a boring program when Misato started talking about something boring, and Shinji felt his eyes start to droop. Asuka was finding it equally difficult to stay awake. Pretty soon, Misato was the only one still awake, and she talked for many minutes without knowing it.

In the dreamscape, Shinji decided that they try something new. "Let's see if we can make people too. Every where we go, it is empty. I am getting a little lonely in this place." So he concentrated a little, and Touji appeared, but he didn't do anything.

"I don't get it."  
  
"Well, I think that you just made his body. Maybe he would have to be here in mind also to be of any use."

"Could it be possible to go find his sleeping mind, and pull it here?"

Asuka pondered this. "I don't know how you would do it. That sounds like something I heard once. Astral projection and I think this is a little different. So far we have been confined to the dreamscape."

"I wonder if you can do anything here? I mean like in other dreams. I sometimes have dreams of flying."

Asuka tried. Closing her eyes, she concentrated really hard on flying, but it didn't work. She opened her eyes, but couldn't find Shinji. She looked around, and then she spotted him out of the corner of her eye. The bottom corner of her eye. She looked down, and saw that she floated, just as she was standing, about 20 feet off the ground. "Hey, I did it."  


"Yeah, but I feel like the laws of physics are still in effect. I would hate to fall, and hit the ground. That could kill us."

"Your tight, we should learn more about this place, or this realm, or whatever, before we do anything that potentially dangerous."  
  
Once again, control of the dream was taken from Shinji and Asuka. They found themselves in space, floating. They looked, and found themselves many thousands of miles from the Earth, right in between it and the moon.

In the distance they could make out a shape, moving towards them at high speed. It was totally amorphous. Changing shape all the time. No specific shape either. A blob, hurtling at them. It came within about half a mile. It was not as big as the Angels usually were, but it was still huge. It passed them as though it hadn't seen them. They couldn't see any eyes.

It slowed as it neared Earth, and entered geo-synchronous orbit over Japan. It stayed there for a while, then retreated back the way it had come. Suddenly they were floating above the hillside they had just left.

"Whoa, I kind of wonder about the safety of this stuff. Our dream…thing. I don't know what to call it, but it is certainly strange. What was that?" Shinji cried as he hit the ground hard. "It looks like some of the laws of physics are still in effect." He said rubbing his head.

Luckily Asuka had appeared on the ground. "Boy, Shinji, I wonder how you make it sometimes." She giggled. Although I am certainly disturbed by that image, there is nothing we can do about it"

Asuka heard Misato calling her name, and started moving backwards. She faded away with a string of curses that Shinji didn't think was possible to say yell in one breath. He concentrated on trying to get out, but found that he was stuck, so he laid down.

Back in reality Asuka jumped up, and assaulted Misato with her cursing. "Misato, what's the big idea? I was having a good dream too." Then she noticed two things. Shinji was still sleeping. That meant that he was unable to exit the dream realm unless someone woke him up. Also she saw that Misato was frantically putting her finger over her lips trying to get Asuka to shut up.

"Be quiet. I didn't want to wake up Shinji, but I just had to ask you something. Asuka, something happened during that test, and I had to ask you about it. Was there anything different in the way the body felt that time?"

"I don't think that is any of your business, Misato."

"I think it is my business. I am supposed to know about everything that goes on in the Eva. I am the operations manager for Christ's sake. I need to know about this. It concerns me that nobody knows anything about it."

"Well, if you must know, I have been having some strange episodes lately."

"What kind of episodes?"

"Now, Misato, this is going to be a little hard to believe, but it really does happen. OK?"

"Yeah, sure." Misato said confidently.

"In the test, I fell asleep, and… I kind of dreamt about this place, and I met Shinji there, but it wasn't like a dream Shinji. It was really Shinji. He and I are able to connect somehow, and experience each other in our dreams."

"You mean it happens to him, too?"

"That's what I said right? He sees it through his eyes, and I see it through mine. It's like an alternate reality or something. It only happens when we are both sleeping, it seems like."

"Your right, it is a little hard to believe, but it would explain at least to some degree why you were…" Misato ended abruptly.

"Why I was what?"

"Nothing, I can't tell you that. It's classified."  
  
"If I was the one doing it, I would like to know what it is."

"I'm sorry Asuka, but I can't tell you that."

"Well, I have to wake up Shinji. He is probably sitting there wondering what happened." Asuka walked over and lightly tapped Shinji on the shoulder. "Hey, Shin, It's time to wake up." She whispered.

Misato knew after that that there was a little relationship going on. She didn't know how to feel about it. It had appeared that Shinji had lost all interest in her long ago. He knew that she was beautiful, but his attention had drifter elsewhere. Presently his attention was on the red head trying to bring him fully to wakefulness.

"Wha? Huh?"

"Get up stupid!"

Then again, she could be wrong about the relationship thing.

  
Asuka winked at Shinji, but Misato missed it.

"Hey, idiot, if you're that tired, you need to go to sleep in your room. The couch is nowhere to sleep."

Shinji groggily nodded his head. He stumbled off to his room, running heavily into a wall before getting there. 

Asuka stood there, thinking about her relationship. She came to a conclusion. She had to tell Misato; sooner or later she would find out, and it would be a little painful. Misato might feel that she couldn't trust Asuka and Shinji for keeping something this important from her. Asuka figured that she would be better off staying with Misato than having to move out to an apartment by herself.

"Misato, if I tell you this, do you promise not to be upset?"

"That depends on what it is you tell me. As long as it is something that can be dealt with, yeah."

"Ok, here goes. Shinji and I have shared more than just the dream connection. We have also begun having feelings for each other." Misato started to say something. "Just hear me out, Misato. I am sure that given my past behavior, you don't think much of a relationship between Shinji and me. But, it still exists. I love him, and he loves me back. And that's all there is to it." She snapped off the last remark a little louder than she had hoped to, startling herself. She rushed past Misato, now upset over thoughts of the possibilities of futures that lay in store. 

Maybe Misato wouldn't think anything of it. Or maybe she would report it to Commander Ikari, and he would order them separated. Or maybe they would be under surveillance, and chaperoned until this war was over. She cried into her hands, and wondered at the cruelty of life.

Misato wondered too. But she wondered what happened. She had been right after all. She had expected Asuka to try to cover it up some, but she had admitted it instead, then grew frightened over what Misato might do. She decided to enter this in her journal on the Second Child, but leave out the fact that she and Shinji were involved.

Asuka cried that night. For the first time in many years, she cried. Her connection with Shinji was in danger, and she was hurt. Although Misato had not done anything yet, there was always the possibility.

The Angel hung high above the Earth far from the scans of the puny satellites littering the space around the little blue planet. It examined its targets, and found that an almost tangible bond had formed between them. Much more powerful than it had set out to make. It examined them closer, and found also that they had fallen in love. This shocked the Angel, and surprised it.

It had failed. Its mission was to affect the minds of its two greatest enemies, and force them to dislike each other. It had instead mistakenly changed their mild interest in each other into a far more serious matter.

It tried with all of its might to break the bond. The connection held. It was just too powerful. Love could not be broken as easily as interest, and anger. It feared what this could mean for its counterparts that were already placing themselves on-planet, thinking that it would be an easy mission. A mission where it's opponents would be fighting each other as much as they would be fighting their enemies.

The Angel backed out of orbit, and sped out of the system, heading for its origin, hoping that it's news would reach its brethren in time…


	9. Consecration

****

Consecration

Shinji lay in his bed pondering. Why me? Why would anyone want to love me? Am I special? I mean, I do pilot Eva, but other than that, I am just ordinary. What he didn't know was that he was special. He was different from every other person on Earth. As was every other person on earth different from each other. This made him special. This made him special to Asuka. Although his self-confidence had grown in the past couple of weeks, he still felt that he was unworthy of anything but the barest minimum of praise or love.

He looked over at the clock. It said 7:00. Why do I have a bad feeling about today? I guess Asuka is going to get tired of me, and dump me or something. I guess she's just tired of me waiting when it comes to the sexual part of our relationship. She just doesn't understand. 

He got up, and stood before the dressers as though they were supposed to open on their own. After a few moments, he opened it, and removed his clothes. He started dressing when the faint droning of sirens could be heard walking across the city, and finally right outside the apartment complex that he called home.

Misato called down the hall, "Shinji, Asuka! Get up, we have to get to headquarters, pronto!"

Shinji finished dressing, then ran out of his room, and right into Asuka.

"Hey, watch it! Oh, it's you Shinji." That statement brought at least a small measure of comfort to him. "By the way, I need to talk to you, when we get some time." Uh-oh.

They ran down the hall, and found Misato coming out of her room, partially dressed, but hurriedly throwing clothing on her body. "Shinji, here are the keys, go get the car started. Asuka, see if you can find my bag in there real quick." She said pointing into her room. 

"Ok." Asuka didn't like taking commands, but if it would get them out of the house quicker, and down to NERV, she could handle it. She picked her way through the room, wondering if there was actually a floor under all that mess. She spied the bag in question, and also saw a thin notebook. Glancing at the notebook, she found it was about her. "SECOND CHILD: SPECULATIONS ON ACTIVITIES" was written neatly across the front. "Hmmm." She picked up the bag along with the notebook. Leaving the room, she flung the notebook in her room, and took the bag to Misato, who was waiting in the living room, frantically putting on her jacket. 

After getting the keys, Shinji raced down the hall, and into the stairs. They would be faster. When he reached the bottom, he ran out to the car, and got in. After starting it up, however, he figured he would make it easier for them, so he put it in gear, and backed out of the space, and put it in drive. Intending to go forward slowly, he lightly touched the gas, and the car lurched forwards, and his foot slammed down in surprise.

Misato exited the building to see her car racing around the parking lot, narrowly missing cars, and swerving all over the place before it finally came to an abrupt stop in front of the building. She ran out to her car, and opened the door. "What are you doing? Are you trying to kill yourself? All I asked you to do was start up the car. Move over."

"I'm sorry Misato, I was just trying to help; I wanted to bring the car around to the front." He scooted over so that the seat could be leaned over, and Asuka got in back. Misato stepped in, and it seemed like she hadn't even closed the door, before they were racing down the road, juking left and right to miss cars.

They made it to Nerv a few minutes later, and found that defensive preparations were already underway. Dr. Akagi sat behind a computer console, typing furiously. "I was wondering when you would decide to show up."

"Yeah, well, unlike other people, I actually live at home. What is it?"

"We can't tell much right now. Our sensors can't get a good look at it. It is staying in the upper atmosphere, between layers of clouds. We know it's near the average size and displacement of the first few angels, but it isn't giving off any energy readings whatsoever. So far all it has done is hover there. A weather satellite picked it up this morning. It just seamed to appear. Look at this." Ritsuko showed her a printout. On it was several pictures, arranged like videotape. On two there were just clouds, then on the third a large hard to make out shape appeared.

"What is the status of the Evas?" She asked.

"All units ready for startup procedure."

"Good. Shinji, you and Asuka go get your suits on, it's time to go to work. When you get back, we may have a briefing for you."

Shinji and Asuka hurried to the locker room, not taking the time to say much to each other.

After dressing, they were told to go to the briefing room. Rei, Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko, Misato, and the tech crew were inside. They sat down, and the briefing began.

"This is the angel. It hasn't made any moves yet, but it is hovering about 7½ miles above sea level directly over Central Dogma." An outline of the Angel appeared on the screen as she spoke, rotating a full 360 degrees. It was a large sphere studded with long sharp spikes placed seemingly randomly on its surface. "We don't know anything about it yet, except that we are unable to detect any energy readings in it. This is to say that it is strange, because it isn't using any energy to hold itself off the ground. It may have a naturally occurring negative gravity-well, but that is all we can come up with."

The image changed to a map of the surface. "All three units will deploy. You will be spread out like so. One mile from epicenter, in 120 degree directions." The map showed three dots forming a triangle around the overlay of Central Dogma, each a mile from the center of it. "Everyone understand? Good. This is going to be a reconnaissance mission. That means that you will not fire until fired upon, and you will make no aggressive movements towards it, until told to do so. Right now, we just want to know if it will do anything in your presence. That's all I have, report to your stations."

Far above the city that was Tokyo-3, the angel watched and waited for it's adversary to make itself known. After a while, they finally appeared, and took up positions around their base directly below it. It thought about descending, and dealing with them, but it figured it might hurt itself unnecessarily by staying in the city. So it slowly moved north, towards some mountains, and woodlands.

Below in Unit 01, Shinji was trying to figure out what was happening. The Angel had moved like they said it probably would, but it was moving away from them! Was it fleeing? Then it stopped. "Misato, what is it doing? Should we follow it?"

"Stay put for right now, I'll be back in a second."

Another screen popped up, and Asuka's face appeared. "Shinji, don't go running off to fight it without me. I don't want to lose you like last time. I know I may have been a little callused then, but I don't want anything to happen to you. OK?"

Misato came back on the screen. "OK you three, I want you to follow it as best you can. Try to keep the current formation, I also want you to follow it at its speed. Don't gain any ground."

"Roger"

"Yes ma'am."

"Who put her in charge, anyway?" Asuka whispered.

"Actually my father did."

"Well, she doesn't have to be so bossy. It's not like we're stupid or something."

The three Evas moved out slowly, keeping their distance with the Angel. After a while, they dropped their umbilicals, because they had reached the limit of their reach. After getting new ones, they each continued their trek. 

"Misato, how far outside the city do the umbilicals go?" Shinji dared to ask.

"We have them installed for about 12 miles outside the city. We hoped to extend the range farther, but funding was not great enough to do so."

The angel kept moving at an incredibly slow pace. It was nearing darkfall when it finally came to a stop. It began slowly descending.

"Ma'am, what should we do. It's not falling on us. It's like a controlled descent."

"Wait for it to make the first move. This has turned from a recon to a standoff. We were unable to gain any more information about it, except that it is using an increasing amount of energy to descend. It's like it has to work to get closer to the ground. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Why do you say that?" Shinji asked hopefully.

"Well, taking that much energy just to stay on a level to fight you, it may be drained far below it's normal operating abilities. But at the same time, by showing us that it uses that much power for something as trivial as staying on the ground, instead of fighting, it shows us that it must control a huge amount of power."

They stood there for a few minutes, waiting for it to descend. When finally it did. It sat for a while, taking it's time.

Shinji eyed it when a strange sensation came over him. "Asuka Rei move back! Hurry!"

"What's the matter?"

Just then, the Angel pumped up, then back down like a heart, and a loud thud shook, then radiating out from the Angel a shockwave-like AT field rolled out of it, flattening and destroying trees in every direction. They could see the compressioon wave coming for them, but were powerless to react. It hit Rei's Eva so hard that she flew back into a mountain, and slid for about half a mile. Asuka and Shinji were just knocked down.

"Holy shit!"

"Did you see that?"

Getting up, Shinji contacted Asuka. "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, what about wondergirl? It looked like it hurt."

"Rei are you alright?"

"Shinji, what happened?" Misato came on.

"I am alright." Rei said monotonously.

"It looked like the Angel made an AT field like an explosion, it destroyed the forest everywhere around us, and knocked all of us down."

"The satellite picture shows that the blast took out a huge amount of forest. That AT field just mowed it down. Shinji, we need some offense, now, we can't just let that Angel walk over us like that. There is a heavy proton rifle in the arms building on the northern most side of the city. Get it." Misato said. 

"Asuka, you and Rei back off a little. Since Shinji is closest, he is going to get a weapon.

Shinji ran his Eva across the forest, and snatched the rifle without slowing. Jumping, he landed on top of a building, did a quick turn around move, and raced back the way he had come.

"OK, Shinji, unfold your AT field, and fire when ready. I am pretty sure something will come up so that it won't be that easy, but this is at least a step towards finding out what it is."

Shinji stepped forward, and expanded hi AT field. The air shimmered for a second. "Here it goes." His Eva took up a classic standing firing position.

Energy-laced rounds and crackling lightning belched out of the muzzle of the weapon. Seeing that it wasn't doing anything, he advanced, starting with a walk, then to a jog, finally at a dead run he realized that he just wasn't going to penetrate the AT field. The weapon fired dry, he spun about, and ran back for the perimeter of the destruction. The expected blast from the Angel caught up with him while he was only halfway back. His Eva, caught in the throes of the compression, tumbled forward many times before finally coming to a stop a quarter of the way to the perimeter.

"Unnhh."

"Shinji!"

"I'm OK. Just gimme a minute." His Eva rose slowly, looking like it was a drunk man, wobbling to and fro, finally getting it's bearings, and making it's way back to the outside.

"Can we get a reading on the power behind that AT field while it's in defensive mode?" Misato asked in the control room.

"Maybe. The extrapolation program is not quite complete, but it should give us at lease something to go by." Dr. Akagi stated.

"How does it work?"  


"It works by taking data from previous instances, then runs the data through an algorithm to show a graphic representation of the field." She explained.

The view showed up on Shinji's interior just as it had on the other Evas. There was a large pinkish hemisphere over the Angel that was pretty thick. "This shows that the AT field is very powerful, but that it is even stronger when it uses it in the offense." The view shifted, and showed an animation of the same field only brighter radiating from the Angel. 

"OK, you guys pull back, and we'll do some brainstorming here. The Angel doesn't look like it's going anywhere. In any case, keep your Evas powered up, in case it does something. Immediately respond if something happens." Misato disappeared from his screen. He joined Asuka and Rei outside the circle of destruction.

After about 30 minutes, Misato came back on. "OK, we have a little plan. Shinji, you and Asuka are on a secure channel. I am afraid that Commander Ikari doesn't want Rei to know about your little…ability."

"Why what about it?" Asuka asked.

"You told her?" Shinji asked, not knowing about Misato and Asuka's discussion from a few weeks before. They had explored the dreamworld, and it's possibilities for many hours, finding out what they could and could not do. They had even found out that they could do things in reality while they were in the dreamstate. They could see reality through their own eyes or from alternate points of view. But all that Asuka had revealed to Misato was that she and Shinji shared the connection, and that they loved each other.

"I…I had no choice. If I had waited and kept it a secret, and she had found out, she would have been hurt."

"Hey, you two, we can settle this later. Right now, we need your talent."

"Ok, what is it." Shinji replied exasperated.

"I want you two to power up your AT fields."

"What so special about that?" Asuka asked. "We have tried neutralizing its AT field. That didn't work now did it?"

"No, but you didn't let me finish. After your done, stay synched with your Evas, and go to sleep. Rei is going to fire another volley at the target, this time doing some damage…theoretically at least. We noticed that while you slept…." Suddenly Misato was cut off, and Commander Ikari's voice only box came up.

"This information has no relevance to the situation at this time. It will be revealed to you when it is appropriate. Now, do as the director says. That is all."

"Why do they always have to be like that?"

In the control room, Misato was fuming with anger. She didn't like being cut off like that. All Ikari had to do was say don't tell them about it, and she wouldn't. She didn't like secrecy, but she still respected his authority. She just gritted her teeth, and bore the humiliation.

In a moment, she reestablished a connection.

Misato's image appeared again, and Shinji was relieved. "Misato, Asuka and I are going to start now." 

"Good luck." Misato said. She gave him a slight smile, and her window disappeared.

"Expanding AT field." The air shimmered once more, this time before both Evas. Shinji, who was feeling tired from a day of inactivity, smiled at Asuka, and adjusted himself in the chair.

Asuka looked at him a moment longer, then started to go to sleep herself. She met him in the same empty space as the first time. "Shinji, I'm sorry about not telling you. I didn't want to hurt Misato. She does mean a lot to me, regardless of how I treat her."

"I know, it just…took me by surprise. That's all. What did she say about us?"

"She told me that she figured that we were an item, but didn't know for sure. I found a notebook in her room this morning; I was planning on looking at it when we get back home. It's about me, and I want to know what she is reporting."

"Even though it doesn't seem right, I have wanted to know what she reports on me as well. I have noticed Nerv intelligence following me sometimes."

"Well, I think that since we haven't met like this for a while, we ought to have some fun, don't you think?"

"Maybe a little, but how about just kissing. I don't think I can handle much more right now, and we are in the middle of a crisis."

"I understand. I don't want you rushed. That makes it less attractive if it's rushed." Reached for him, and brought her face towards him. At the moment that their lips touched, They were both reminded about how much they loved each other. The waves of emotion crashed over them, and they soon found themselves holding each other, lying on the ground. Just holding each other tightly.

Shinji thought to himself. Why do I have to be like that? I am taking away from her experience by delaying it. I should be man enough to say that I'm ready. OK, that's it. I'll do it tonight. After this battle. When we get home. Home. He though about what that word meant. Lately, it had just been him and Asuka at home. Misato had picked up a larger workload, and was seldom around anymore. He missed her. They should go do something, he decided. Something that they all would enjoy. He would have to think about it.

Right now, he was the happiest man alive. Was he a man? Or a boy? What is it to be a man? Is it to be of age? Or is it to love someone over yourself? Or is it maybe to do something heroic? 

Inside Central Dogma, the extrapolator was going crazy trying to keep up with the growth of the two AT fields. They were now bordering on the Angels own field, and showed no signs of stopping. The two Evas Fields merged into one, and flowed over the Angels, nulling the field, making the side closest to Rei vulnerable.

"Rei?" Misato ventured.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Fire at the Angel."

"Yes, ma'am." Rei aimed, and fired her newly acquired rifle empty on the Angel. It was dead with the first few hits, but she fired anyway, without knowing why. After settling a little, the Angel exploded. All three Evas were shaken, but surprisingly the blast was directed upwards. The pillar of flames reached at least a mile into the air, but did no damage to the Evas or what was left of the forest around it.

Shinji and Asuka were jolted awake, and sat upright, as the last rumblings of the blast settled into the background. "Did it work?"

"Yes. It worked. Good work you two." Commander Ikari said.

Shinji found that he no longer craved the compliments as much as he did before. They were no longer his reason for living. He looked to the image of his love, sitting there, squeezing the bridge of her nose, and relieving some of the tension that had built up over the past day.

After they had returned, and powered the Evas down, they exited, and headed for the showers. Shinji redressed, and went to the Lounge for a drink. He was halfway through his tea when Misato walked in, with Asuka in tow, and told him that they needed to go home. "Commander Ikari has decided that we can go home tonight, without a debriefing, and tomorrow we can have off. Let's not give him time to reconsider!" 

They left Nerv, and drove home, considerably slower than they had gotten there that morning. They talked then for the most time that Shinji could remember. They talked of recent events, about school, about what dinner would be. They had a heated debate over who would be cooking, ending in Shinji and Asuka cooking, while Misato watched and learned. They had a good laugh over that.

Times were good. Shinji had his love. Shinji had his life. Shinji had his happiness. That night at dinner, he and Misato talked candidly about the Asuka situation. Asuka was there, listening to all of it, and she felt that now that things were out in the open, they were OK. No longer would she have to cry over her futures possibilities. 

"So what are you going to do?" Shinji asked.

"About what?" Misato asked, trying to evade the question for as long as possible.

"About us, me and Asuka. I don't want my relationship invaded, and analyzed. It is mine, and I like it the way it is." He winked at Asuka. She caught it, and wondered silently what he meant by it.

Misato, gulping down a little more beer, thought for a moment. "Well, I am going to have to report it. But I will make sure that it is put as delicately as possible, and you won't be invaded. Even if he orders you chaperoned, or broken up, your relationship will be safe at least behind my doors.

With that she stood, and dumped her dishes in the sink.

"By the way, great meal. I should put you on full time." She laughed to herself.

"I don't see what's so funny. We're on full time anyway." Shinji said.

They finished up, and cleaned the dishes. Shinji noticed that Asuka looked lovely with her hair all mussed, her hands covered in suds. He reached over with a soap-covered hand, and caressed her cheek, slowly from her ear to her chin. She looked at him a little startled. She had been thinking to herself, and he had jolted her back to reality.

"I just thought of how beautiful you are. It made me feel…something I can't explain. It is a feeling that borders between joy and love, welling inside me. I can feel my heart beating."

Asuka placed her hand on his chest. "So can I. It's a strong heart."

"I haven't yet thought of a delicate way of asking this, so I will just ask it. I am ready, are you willing?" The semi frightened look in his eyes melted to relief. Relief that he had finally stood up to his fears, and faced down reality. That he didn't have to be ruled by fear, but by himself.

Asuka looked at him, and stepping into him, wrapped her arms around him, embracing him in a blanket of love. They kissed deeply, wanting never to break. They moved, somewhat clumsily down the hall, and into Asuka's room, mostly because it was farther from the sleeping Misato.

No words were needed. In that moment, they were one, moving in perfect unison, almost as if fighting the 7th angel, Israfael. The music was no longer classical, but it was the blood rushing through their veins, coursing throughout their bodies, making one immutable beat. What they had done in the dreamworld was now taking place in reality. It was no longer a measure of pleasure, but the result of a shove from their love.

They moved towards the bed, but missed, and flopped on the hard floor instead. Neither of them noticed. The beat was faster now. Deafening, it guided their movements. The clothes came off. The sex commenced. Asuka was writhing from the sensation, and Shinji was spent quickly, and although it had only taken less than 15 minutes from the beginning to the end, it had lasted an eternity. Their breathing and heart rates returned to normal, and they relaxed on each other, lying on the floor, dazed, and unawares of anything else around them.

"Shinji, I love you. I want you to know that. I pray that it will always be that way. Whatever you may think of me, I will love you." With that Asuka drifted to sleep in Shinji's arms. He slowly, ever so slowly eased from under her, and picked he up, and gently placed her on her bed. Feeling sleepy himself, he slid in next to her, and slept.

That night they slept. No dreamsworlds to occupy them, and no nightmares to haunt them, but pure blissful sleep. Shinji figured out 'why him'. There was no other explanation: 'Just because…'


	10. Debrieifing, Return to School, and Misat...

****

Debriefing-Return To School- Misato's Terrible Cooking

The battle was over. Parties involved were given a day of rest, but now they were back on duty. Maya Ibuki arrived very early, and began work on the debriefing. She type for a few hours, analyzing information, determining what would be released to whom, and in what way would it be released. It was exhausting work, and when 9:00 finally rolled around, she looked as though she were coming off the night shift. 

Misato, Asuka and Shinji arrived looking refreshed and ready to tackle the day. 

Shinji and Asuka had stayed up late the night before, and looked at the notebook that Asuka had confiscated from Misato's bedroom. It had confirmed Misato's words that she would do anything in her power, and possibly some thing that were not in her power by the sound of it, to keep their relationship alive. They had both been relieved. Shinji had remained adamant about the fact that Misato wouldn't lie to them just to put them at ease. That she was on a quest for truth as well.

Every one made their way to the briefing room, and seated themselves, but they couldn't start without everyone being present.

Kaji came to work late as usual, and the briefing was held until he got there. His unkempt stubble, and loose tie trademark were still in place. Once he found his seat, conspicuously close to Misato, the debriefing began.

"At 0655 Tuesday morning, unidentified object class 37 appeared 7.65 miles above Central Dogma. Approximately 7 miles above sea level. At 0657 it was reclassified as Angel 12.2. We have made this a subclass Angel, because its arrival was not predicted, as were the previous encounters. At 0703 parties concerned were contacted, and given the battle-station alert. After arriving on station, pilots were readied, and were sortied in their respective units at 0740. Mission was originally a reconnaissance mission, however as the units emerged on the surface, target began moving northward at approximately 2.5 miles per hour. The Angel was mapped using data gathered from sensors aboard the Evas. This is a computer representation of the Entity." 

The projector came on; showing a wire diagram of the Angel, spinning slowly, then it filled in, so that it looked exactly like the angel. "It had a displacement of approximately 1.3 million cubic meters. After following the Angel out of the city, which took approximately 9 hours due to the extremely slow pace, the angle descended and made contact with the ground where it remained for about a minute when it used its primary offensive weapon." The projector showed the extrapolation diagram of the angel releasing its pulse field. "This AT field was set in motion from deep inside the angel, radiating outwards in all directions. It destroyed hundreds of acres of forest, and lightly damaged all three units, Unit 00 taking the most. After backing off from the Angel, Unit 01 was sent to retrieve a heavy proton rifle from the nearest armory. While attempting to nullify it's AT field, Unit 01 fired at the target incurring no damage. The angel released its attack again, this time damaging Unit 01's balance control system slightly."

An image of a woozy unit 01 appeared. "After another retreat, a plan was made concerning a certain ability seemingly inherent to the pilots of Unit 01 and 02. This helped nullify the enemy's AT field, allowing Unit 00 to fire at the target until exposing and piercing its core." 

The projector turned off, but the briefing continued. To Shinji, it seemed to go on for hours, but in reality, it lasted less that one hour. All manner of things were brought up, but nothing was said about the astral projection. Shinji wondered about this. Why would they choose not to release knowledge of such a thing to Rei? He knew that she privy to a great deal more than he had been. Somehow she was unearthly. He didn't know what it was. Her unemotional state was certainly odd, but he had seen other people similar to her before. Something about the way she moved. As though she was not meant to be where she was, but she seemed that way everywhere. He had never seen her take much action in her Eva either. That was weird.

The Briefing ended, and everyone but Shinji got up. He was unaware of his surrounding, so absorbed in his thoughts he was. "Hey slowpoke, come on. We're missing enough school by coming to this stupid thing as it is."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, coming." He noticed that Rei exited the room, and moved down the hall to a bank of moving walkways that would take her to the elevators. But it was in the opposite direction that she would need to go to get to the surface, and ultimately school. He stared after her, for a moment, until she was out of site.

"Where do you think she goes? She is often late or absent from school."

"I have wondered that, too. It's weird, but it seems that the really weird one is let in on all of the good stuff. I know she knows more about this than me, and that is not a result of inability to learn." Asuka looked at her watch. It was nearing lunch. "We had better get to school, or we'll be counted as absent for the day."

They ran for the elevators, and made it in time to catch a ride to the express elevators to the surface.

Arriving at school 30 minutes later, they heard the bell ringing signaling the start of the lunch hour. Since they had sworn Touji and Hikari to secrecy, and they had kept their promise, their relationship had been kept under wraps. All they needed was the whole class talking about them. Asuka had figured out a good way for them to find out. Just ease into the public view of the relationship, by getting a little closer each day. So far they had progressed to holding hands and sitting next to each other. That was probably as far as it was going to go.

They entered the common area, holding hands, and looked around for their friends. Lately with Touji and Hikari's relationship developing, they had brought two groups together. Initially both groups hated each other. One consisted of the girls that Asuka had hung out with. The other was headed up by the 'Three Stooges', namely Shinji, Touji, and Kensuke. 

Kensuke spied Shinji, and waved them over.

"So, where have you two been?"

"Well, for your information, we had to get debriefed on our mission on Tuesday. What's it you?" Asuka challenged.

"My, my, still a little on the defensive?" Kensuke laughed to himself.

Asuka knew what he was doing. He was actually trying to pry more information out of her. He didn't understand what 'Classified' meant.

"I heard that you defeated another Angel. This makes what? 11 now? Quite an impressive record. How did you do it this time?" Kensuke dared to ask.

"Not only is that classified, it is personal. If I don't tell it to you without your asking, then you don't need to know. Got it?" Asuka growled leaning forward menacingly.

"OK, OK, I got it. Geez."

Touji and Hikari were off talking to each other a little more privately.

Kensuke eyed them a little jealously. Not that he wanted Hikari, but he wanted a relationship. He filled the holes in his life with Anime and war stuff, and tried to fill the void in his life that he felt every day. For some reason his life seemed empty. He wondered silently if other felt the way he did. Shinji, Asuka, and Rei would never understand because they piloted Eva; they were needed. They could have the fun jobs. Besides, Shinji had Asuka, and vice versa. Touji and Hikari wouldn't understand; they had each other. He sat and pondered his problem wondering if there was someone to fill the void rather that something.

They all ate their lunches and talked as though everything was just fine. On the surface, things couldn't be better. However, underneath, problems lay in wait to come out when they were alone, with time to think them over in more detail. They laughed, and joked, Shinji more active than he had been before he and Asuka had hooked up, Kensuke noticed.

The bell rang, and everyone hurried to the classroom. After the teacher entered they bowed and sat, waiting for the extensive lecture on the Second Impact.

"And so, after the meteor impacted, it sublimated nearly the entire continent of Antarctica. Huge storms formed first, raining for nearly 2 years. The heat given off could be felt from a far away a the U.S…"

Yeah, yeah, I think you're the only one who still believes that crap. It amazes me that people are so easily fooled. Asuka thought. She looked at Shinji, and found that he was stroking his chin, and looking at Rei's seat.

A little perturbed that he could think about her, she punched a message to him on her desktop, and sent it. Across the room it beeped, and caught his attention.

'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING?'

He punched back for a moment, then looked at her. "JUST WONDERING WHAT IT WAS THAT SHE DOES ALL THE TIME WHEN SHE ABSENT. I HAVE NOTICED THAT SHE HAS CHANGED SINCE I GOT HERE. ITS WEIRD. I DON'T LIKE HER IF THAT"S WHAT YOUR GETTING AT.'

She stared at it for a while. After mulling it over in her head, she realized that he was right. Rei had changed a little since she had gotten to Tokyo-3 as well. She now distanced herself from the commander, and even talked to Shinji and herself in more than 2 or 3 word sentences.

The hours dragged on, and finally the bell rang. Asuka had never heard a sweeter sound. The teacher was just starting to get done with his lesson. If allowed to continue, he probably could filibuster for days. Asuka and Shinji walked home with Touji and Hikari, and split ways when they came to the turnoff that they took. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hikari. Keep that idiot in line!" She grinned.

"Hey Shinji, if she beats up on you, you can come over to my house, and you won't have to look at her for a while." Asuka turned red, and a large sweat drop formed on her head. Shinji just smiled.

Turning towards home, they set out. After about a block, he reached out, and took her hand. They walked that way, sharing the day with each other. About the debriefing, Kensuke's preoccupation, Rei's absence. 

When they arrived home, they walked through the house, and came upon Misato lounging on the couch, sleeping. "She seems to sleep a lot lately. Or maybe I don't remember it because it seemed like we were always on the move to defeat the next angel.

They went to their separate rooms to have some time alone, and contemplate things, and after about an hour, Asuka came to Shinji's door, book in hand. Shinji looked up at her, questioningly.

"I need to study. Neither of us have been to school nearly as much lately as we should have, and we both need to catch up a little." She plopped down next to him, and they studied physics for about 45 minutes when they heard a stirring Misato call out groggily. "Asukashinji? You guyshome?"

"Even when she's sober she's drunk."

"I don't understand her either."

Misato came to Shinji's door, and peeked in. "Oh, I'll bet you were just studying or something right? I tried that one once, it didn't work very well."  
  
"But we really were studying. It's not like our relationship is based on sex. There is more to it than that." Asuka stated.  
  
"So you're saying that sex is factored into it?" Asuka and Shinji both turned bright red. "Not that that is wrong, but I think you may be a little young to realize what exactly sex means. It is more than just physical pleasure in your case. Although, yeah, it feels great, it creates an emotional bond, that strengthens you love, but it can be overwhelming if you're not ready for it. I don't want you to have to go through that." Asuka started to say something, but Misato held up her hand. "I know, I was getting to that. I am a pretty lenient person, so I cam going to leave it in your hands. I think this is too big for a person on the outside to control without it being detrimental. Do what you think is right, but remember, you are going to be the one responsible."

"Yes, ma'am." They said in unison.

"Now, it's about time for dinner. I think I have got that cooking thing down, so I'll go at it tonight."

Shinji and Asuka looked at each other with grim visages, knowing that there was no stopping her. They would just have to bear it.

A half-hour later, they all sat at the table, and waited for the first person to try it. Shinji didn't want a cemetery named after him, so he was a little reluctant. Asuka eyed the "food" with suspicion. Misato beamed at them, promising that it was good food.

"Yeah, WAS good food. What did you do to it?"

Misato decided to default the task of tasting the food to an unsuspecting Pen-Pen. The little bird lasted about until his third chew before he passed out.

Shinji and Asuka shoved theirs away. "Ok, I'm done."

"I don't understand it. I followed the recipe." Misato pleaded. "This is even the way it looked in the picture.

Shinji got the cookbook, and compared. It was about like comparing a kindergarten drawing to a Picasso. They had some of the same general shapes and colors, but one was a masterpiece, and the other was a piece of shit.

"Well, maybe it's a little off. I had to substitute a few things because my pantry is getting a little sparse. I'll have to go shopping soon. Oh well, want to order out?"

6 beers and half a pizza later, Misato was passed out on the couch once more, this time with the litter piled right at her feet. She had fallen asleep watching a movie they had decided to play. Shinji and Asuka fooled around for a little while, and decided to "go to bed". It had been a pretty good day.

Far above the spinning orb that was Earth, the Angel probe unit moved closer to make a closer scan. It watched as one of its cousins was killed in a brief battle. How it hated it's designated job. All it could do was sit there and watch, record the event, and then report its findings. Then it had an idea that had never occurred to its kind before. Go against orders. After a little debate it found that if the objective was cleared, and higher found out about it, they wouldn't mind much. They would be happy with what had turned out.

It sent thought tendrils out to its waiting cousins, instructing them that the plan had changed. They would now be mounting a concerted attack to destroy the dissidents once and for all. They had to secure the area so that they could find what was generating the incessant pull from somewhere inside the planet, relatively close to the surface. It called to them, beckoning. They would attack soon. It would be a glorious victory.


	11. The Program

****

The Program

Shinji sat in the entry plug mock up. It was exactly the same as his normal entry plug, except, there were numerous ports where wires connected to diodes that were placed all over his body.

Dr. Ritsuko Akagi spoke to him quietly, going over the day's schedule. "Since you are going to be in a computer simulation, we will be unable to simulate the unpredictable occurrences that frequent your Eva in particular. This is a simulation only. This program takes everything that we know about angels, and does 2 things. Firstly, it allows us the chance to predict possible abilities of upcoming angels, and find ways of defeating them. Also, it allows us to expand your piloting talent. While you will be able to fight nearly as well as in your Eva, the simulation can only crudely reproduce pain. So, when you are his severely, the pain may be intense, and range all over your body. I am sorry, but I was made to program this into simulation in order to fully replicate the combat environment. The first few battles will be easy, mostly because they will be angels you have already fought. The next will be a little challenging, while later they will be difficult. Be prepared to fight the same angel multiple times."

"In this simulation, are we going to be fighting as a team?"

"At first all fights will be fought as a team, whether with two or three units in on the fight. That will be determined on a mission to mission basis. Many of the later ones have been determined to be single Unit sorties. However, if you are unable to defeat the program in these conditions, you will be allowed a partner. Any other questions?"

"No ma'am."

"OK, control, fill and charge the LCL."

Yellow LCL filled the plug, and Shinji's body fought for a second to adjust to having fluid in his lungs once more. He quickly recovered, and his screen showed the normal light display. As the image cleared in front of him, he found that he was standing in the restraining frame at the top of a catapult, above ground. He looked to his side, and found Unit 02 facing the same way as he was. It was dark outside, and it looked like a ghost town. Then, slowly the angel appeared. It was Sachiel. The safety locks released, and his Eva slowly moved out. He found that he had to concentrate a little harder than normal.

Asuka saw the angel, and moved forward also, putting a building between herself and the angel. She contacted Shinji, and smiled when his face appeared. "Shinji, circle around, and get on it's other side, and we can hit it from in front and behind." She hefted a pallet rifle, and moved into position. She saw Shinji on her HUD, positioned similarly on the other side of another building.

"GO!" She jumped from behind the building, and lay into the angel, firing the magazine dry. Shinji's shots had the same effect. After the smoke cleared, the angel stood there, unscathed. It turned slightly as thought to line itself up with her, and suddenly a force projection erupted right under her.

It was powerful. It blasted Unit 02 high into the air, and destroyed buildings close by. It knocked Unit 01 down, and disoriented him a little. When Unit 01 rose, Shinji found that the angel had grabbed Unit 02 by the head, and was thrashing it around against buildings. For some reason the Evangelion was not fighting back.

"Asuka! You have to fight!" Shinji heard himself say. He charged forwards toward the angel, and nearly punched it, but it reacted quickly, and grasped his hand, and twisted it out of the way, and he went tumbling to the ground. Shinji didn't know what happened at first, but then he remembered seeing such tactics in martial arts.

The left leg of Unit 02 was hanging by white bone fragments and yellowish sinew, flopping about in the wake of the angel's tantrum. 

Asuka screamed over the comm channel, and it hurt his ears.

When he heard it, Shinji was angry. He had at first been subdued thinking that this angel would be an easy kill. But the sound of his Asuka in such torment, the sight of her Eva being ripped limb from limb stole that stoicism from him, and he regained his footing, not taking his eyes off the angel the whole time. Those in the control room would recall later that they had not seen anything look quite so menacing without doing anything threatening. It scared them to think of what might be going on in the unstable mind of Shinji Ikari. Of any of the pilots for that matter.

Shinji stood there for a moment, absorbing the moment. He thought of several things that he could do to the angel. He expanded his AT field to as powerful as he could make it. It shimmered, and the phase space differences could be seen in the familiar hexagonal shape that appeared in the air, when it came in contact with the angel's own field. He began moving slowly forward, watching carefully as the angel still focused on Eva 02. The leg had ripped off, and lay a few miles away. He steadily advanced, until he thought he could rush the angel, and then jumping forward started his attack. 

The angel noticed his not-so-subtle tactic well before that, and force projected at him. It blew him away and flattened a little more of the city.

In the entry plug, there was little light. The emergency lighting had come on, and Shinji sat in the near darkness wondering what was going on. Then the screen reappeared, but this time, it was distorted. It was tinted with a greenish hue that cast strange colors into the cockpit around him. It wavered, and trembled then focused.

In the control room, the third person display showed that Unit 01's facial armor had been stripped away, and showed the hideous face beneath. It seemed that this fight held many similarities between itself and the original.

"Did you program that in. Maya?" Ritsuko asked nervously.

"No ma'am. I only programmed in the harmonics data and the external armor sprites." 

"Then how the hell did it do that?" She said pointing to the screen. 

In the program, Shinji's Eva stood once again, only this time without his control to aid it. It breathed heavily, and howled into the night air, sending a chill up anyone's spine that heard it. He sat in the entry plug frantically trying to control the beast that was his weapon. It did not respond.

The Eva bent, and picked up a broken piece of conduit that had once been underground, but now lay amidst the rubble in this middle of the city. It wielded it like a crude club, and screamed once more, this time thrusting it high into the air. It bolted forward, bearing down on the angel, repowering it AT field on the way. Conduit club leading the way, the Eva skewered the angel with it as it passed. Stopping, and sliding along the road for about a quarter mile, the Eva turned around, and ran back at the angel.

Sachiel dropped Unit 02, needing both hands to deal with the threat at hand. Shinji saw what was about to happen, and hoping to spare himself from the blood and gore, started moving the controls again, praying to regain some kind of control. "Come on, you worthless stupid program! You can't do this, you are supposed to do what I tell you to. You have no power of will of your own! No! You have to do what I say! You bastard, why does this always have to happen with you? I hate this. Always you turn into some kind of raging monster!" He yelled, pleaded with the controls to obey him. He tried opening comm frequencies with control, but he couldn't raise them.

The Eva slammed into the angel, running full force into it. Grabbing the protruding end of the conduit, it jerked it out of the angel, and took up a two handed grip on the end. Raising it above it's head, he started to club the angel over the head area, but the angel grabbed the weapon, and held it at bay with one hand while the other hand shot down, and grabbed him by the leg. It picked him up, and turned him upside down intending to thrash him as it had Unit 02. This only proved to make the Eva angrier. The eyes squinted, and shone with unearthly light, similar to how they looked with the armor covering them, only now more intense. Unit 01's hand shot out, and took hold of the edges of the angel's core. It stuck out of the front, and glowed. The Eva's hands found little purchase but held on anyway. Suddenly, a red arm shot up from the ground somewhere, and thrust a prog knife deep into the core. It sizzled, and sparked, then went dead. The angel dropped Unit 01, and slumped to the ground.

Unit 01 got up, and stood over the fallen angel, angry at it for forcing it into action, rage poured out it, manifesting itself when the Eva knelt beside the angel, and started beating it with it's bare hands. The sound of cracking and breaking was sickening, and the noises from the tearing of flesh soon would have had him retching had it not been for the fact that he had not had anything to eat in a while. He screamed for it to stop. For the controllers to end to program. They couldn't hear his anguish, and the gore continued unabated. Soon blood ran freely in the streets and pieces of the angel adorned buildings as if to warn the other angels of this ones demise, and what would happen to them if they came. It lasted for a long time, but finally the Eva calmed, and stopped, and Shinji suddenly was no longer synchronized to the Eva.

A window popped up, and he saw Ritsuko's face. "Shinji! What the hell are you doing? You have blocked all contact for the last hour, and we have been trying to move your Eva to a neutral area for almost that long. This is not a game. There are good reason why we have the comm system, and you should know that it is vital to every mission."

"You think I tried to that? I tried to totally destroy the angel? I couldn't control the sim Eva. It went out of control. It wouldn't obey commands, and I couldn't open a comm channel. I tried for a long time, but it wouldn't do it. I didn't want to do that to the angel." At this point the simulated situation started taking hold of him. "I told it to stop." He cried. "I told it that Asuka had killed it." He then remembered the other Eva pilot. "Where is Asuka? Is she hurt? I want to see her." 

"She's alright. This is just a computer simulation, she can't be hurt." Ritsuko signed off as the LCL drained from the mock cockpit, and the hatch opened allowing him egress. He headed for the showers in silence, not believing what had happened in the program. Had it been him controlling the Eva unconsciously? Had his will been served? He had been angry with the angel. Had that emotion repowered his Eva, and caused it to berserk like that? He didn't think so.

His shower was unfulfilling. It did not wash away his troubles no matter what Misato thought. Sure, he felt clean, but his thoughts followed him all the way to the lounge where he found Kaji sipping tea.

"Hi Kaji. How are you?"

"Oh hi, Shinji, I am doing well, and you?"

"I don't know any more. I don't suppose you saw the simulation this afternoon?"

"Yes, I did. I must say, that was…unique."

"I didn't do it. At least I don't think I did. I didn't mean for that to happen. It ran out of control just like my Eva does. I thought they weren't supposed to do that."

"They aren't. That leads me to believe one of two things. One, they aren't telling us everything about the program. Or two, the Magi system is taking control of it without anyone else knowing it. While you were in there, the facial armor on you Eva was stripped off, and the face was exposed. Ritsuko and Maya had not programmed that face into the simulation, so where did it come from? The Magi computers have hundreds of pictures to go from to make that face."

"Why would it do that? It's just a computer."

"Just a computer? You don't know then. The Magi supercomputers are based on Ritsuko's mother, Naoko. She programmed them to deal with problems based on her own thoughts and feelings. They are named after the Three wise men, Melchior, Balthasar, And Caspar. The three parts of her that make them up are herself as a woman, herself as a mother and herself as a scientist. They are the most advanced computer systems in the world, because of this."

"So they have artificial intelligence?"

"Not in the true sense of the term. They have problem solving capability, and can work logic very well, but they have no will."

"Then why would the computer redo the program?"

"I have been trying to figure that out. It had stumped me."

"I had better get going, Misato and Asuka are probably looking for me." He got up, and left the room, leaving Kaji to think over the newest development.

Soon he found Asuka. She was sitting on a bench in the hall, dressed and waiting to go, but he saw that she was in no mood to talk. He pressed in anyway.

"Hi, Asuka. How are you doing? Are you alright?"

"Go away Shinji. I don't want to talk to anyone right now." This, she noted to herself, was untrue. She wanted desperately to talk to Shinji, but she was unable to find a way to say what she felt, so she decided to just be angry instead. "I don't think we even have anything to talk about either, so just leave me alone."

Shinji sat there in silence for a few moments, contemplating her mood. She hasn't called me that in a long time. Why would she act so callous towards me? Is it because of what happened in the simulation? I don't understand her sometimes. 

Shinji, feeling uncomfortable, and not knowing any way to console the young girl, found that he could find nothing good to say to her. He stood, and hesitantly left her sitting on the bench, looking at her feet.

She sat there for a long time mulling the events of the afternoon over in her head. It had not gone the way she had expected. She had hoped to finally prove her worth to Shinji, to show him that she was not the weakling he must think she is. To be rescued even in a computer simulation really killed her spirit. She starting thinking about their relationship, and how he had changed since they had been together. Through his kindness she had seen his true feeling for her. He had never thought of her as a weakling, but quite the opposite. He revered her almost like he looked up to her and to her when it came to problems. She suddenly realized that her thinking was screwed up. She had spent her entire life trying to break away from everything and everyone trying to be her own person. She wanted to be a self-made woman. But in doing so, she had alienated herself, and made things more difficult, and ultimately it would lead to her downfall.

She jumped to her feet, and raced after Shinji. As she turned the corner, she found Kaji leaning against the wall, minding his own business, but she didn't pay him any mind. She ran down the hall and past doors and intersections, finally arriving at he long bank of escalators, and found Shinji a few yards down. She caught up with him, and poked him in the ribs, getting his attention. "I'm… sorry for… the way I acted back there. I realized that I need you, and that I am better off counting on you than just counting on myself."

Shinji stood agape. He had never heard her say she was sorry for anything. He couldn't remember many times that she would need to since most transgressions were forgotten as fast as they were committed. 

"I have never told you about me, and there are some things you need to know about me that you don't." She smiled at him, and took his arm, and didn't say anymore.

That night they sat in Asuka's room, and she told him of her past. She told him about her parents and her mothers suicide. The story lasted long into the night, and at times she cried despite herself. When she was done, she cried some more, and Shinji moved closer and held her. He brought her closer to him, and they sat there for a while, and held each other. They made love that night, and it was like no other time. They knew each other, this time, and they opened up more than ever before. It was the greatest experience either had ever had. Afterwards, they entered their dream world, and continued until the alarm woke them the next morning.


	12. The Ability

****

The Ability

Shinji shook his head to clear away the fuzziness and disorientation. He retook the controls and stood his simulation EVA up again. For the third time that week, he and Asuka were paired together in a fight against a computer controlled angel. He ducked behind a building, and waited. "Asuka, have you got that rifle yet?"  
  
"Not yet. This damned thing is jammed." He saw Unit 02 struggling with the door of an armory building. "I'm gonna try another one."

"Okay. Hurry."

She winked at him through the display. He turned his EVA's head to look around the corner at the angel. This one was stranger than most. It's natural form was vaguely human, but it shapeshifted sometimes. As he peeked around the corner, a claw shot right past his face, and startled him. He had not known that it was this close. Jumping back, he took out his prog knife, and took up a ready stance. Then pain seared him from behind as the monster jumped on his back, and raked him with AT field enhanced claws. He spun around, and tried to throw the assailant off of himself, but it hung on, staying close to his back.

He could feel it moving up, trying to get a position on his neck. Reaching over his head, he grabbed it, and pulled. It wouldn't let go, and then suddenly his hand came away with something. He brought it down, and saw that was one of the angel's arms. How curious. It doesn't seem to be made of anything very tough. 

He crashed around on some buildings, and finally loosened his adversary, which promptly changed form again, and ducked behind another building. "I sure do wish it would just stand still. It should know by now that it is going to die, why make it so hard on us."

"Sometimes I wonder how and shy you fight in these things Shinji. I am coming to you. I have rifles for both of us."

"Swing by and throw me a rifle, then move around to the other side, Lets see if we can surround him a little."

"Coming. Here!" Unit 02 ran by, tossing the rifle, and then veering to the left, moving in and out of buildings. Shinji caught the rifle, and checked to make sure the first round was in the chamber. Sure enough it wasn't. "I see they're trying to trip us up. The decided to let the armory crews slip up a little." He pulled back the charging handle, and chambered the first round.

"Well, at least the computer isn't stacking things way against us. It could be raining so hard we couldn't see anything.

The MAGI computer system, upon hearing this went into deliberation for a few microseconds, and figured that they had overlooked something in the scenarios. In the program, it started raining.

"What the? Hey, that's not very nice. I'm gonna kill that computer when I get out of this thing." Just then Lightning struck the building next to her, and lit up her screen. She had a hard time following the angel. It was trying to circle around Shinji, and get behind his field of vision.

"Shinji, look out, it's coming around on your right. By the way, what's with that arm in your right hand?"

"I decided I didn't like it scratching my back, so I ripped it off." Shinji crept around the building, holding the arm in his left hand, rifle in his right. The angel flashed past, trying to get to the building on his right side, but had misjudged where he was, and so was caught. Shinji fired, but his rifle was not up yet, so he only got it in the leg. The H.E. rounds hit the leg, and blew it off, leaving shredded meat dangling from what was probably a knee. 

Then angel morphed again, getting smaller due to the decreased mass, this time into a large conglomerated creature. It had a dog-like head, with sharp teeth, a long serpentine body, with four legs, and a long tapered whip-like tail. It made like it was going to jump at him, tensing up a little.

Unit 02 appeared behind it, and fired off a round, but it hit just behind it. The thing jumped at unit 01, baring its teeth. Shinji jumped back, and swung his left arm, which held the creature's arm, what used to be the creatures arm. The claws sliced cleanly through the flesh of the angel, cutting it neatly in half, along its stomach. Its legs hit the ground, but its upper body continued their trajectory, and smashed into him.

Dropping the arm, and grabbing its head, he pulled it off of him, but kept a hold on it. He stood up, still holding the creature by its head, then raised his rifle, and was about to shot when a thought occurred to him. Flexing his left fingers, he crushed the head of the angel, taking out the core too. "That was a little messy. I thought that would do it."  
  
"Why didn't you just shoot it?"

"Well, I had to destroy the brain or control center or whatever, because unless I did that, it would keep turning into other stuff."  
  
"Oh, good thinking then. But I think I am going to access one of the targeting programs before I get out. I have a little aggression to work out before I stop."  
  
"I'll see you later then." Shinji started the shutdown sequence as soon as he entered the catapult restriction arms, and the screen went blank. LCL slowly pumped out of the entry plug, and he got out. After a quick spray down, to wash off the residual LCL on his suit, he made his way to the small control station that overlooked the computerized plugs. He saw the estimated casualties, and was amazed. It was only 10-20 injuries. He queried to find out why, and the computer told him that they had actively engaged the angel after people had been evacuated from that district, but Asuka's H.E. round had collapsed part of a shelter below ground level.

He watched her EVA firing at moving targets while running, jumping through the simulated obstacle course. She juked and wove, jumped, always moving, and then firing a burst that would hit the target, and blow it away. His thoughts were still on her when he entered the shower room, and started the cleaner for his plug suit.

While in the shower he suddenly felt happy. It came over him very quickly, and he had the feeling of being satisfied with himself. Then just as suddenly he was angry for some reason. He began wondering what it was, and absently picked up the soap, and started washing his hands.

Asuka rinsed her hands off, and dried them. She had opened the door to the locker room, and put her hand in some sticky gum. It was dirty, and grossed her out. "Why do people have to do that. Why can't they just put it in the trash? Stupid people."

Back in the shower, Shinji realized what he was doing, and put the soap back, confused. His hands were clean, but he couldn't figure out why he had thought they were dirty in the first place. He finished showering, and got out.

After getting redressed, he went to the vending machines, and got a drink. He was always thirsty when he came out of the entry plug, whether real or simulation, so it had become a routine for him to come here. He sipped it, and reflected over the battle.

Asuka stepped out of the shower, and walked to her locker, her bare feet slapping on the tile. She dressed, and left, looking for Shinji. She found him, sipping his tea as usual, musing to himself.

"What are you thinking about that can keep you occupied when I, Asuka, end all be all of existence, enters the room?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Come on, what is it?"

"Have you ever known of the MAGI to have a sense of humor?"

"No. All it does is make sure things run smoothly. Why do you ask? Is this about the rain thing?"

"Yeah. The MAGI has never shown any ability to add stimulus. All it does is respond, but today, it was almost like it was trying to be funny."  
  
"Well as long as it does its job, it can try to be as funny as it wants."

"I guess your right. You want to go do something. I am getting tired of just sitting here, even if I do it every time I get done with EVA." Shinji threw his can away.

"Like what?"

"I don't know, what is there to do?"

"Well, it has been a while since we have just sat and though about things; I could go for the peace and quite."

"That's not a bad idea. You want to go tot he usual place?" She asked raising her eyebrow.

"Gulp! Uh…yeah. I like it up there. I haven't been there since…uh." He let it go at that. They exited, and started the long journey to the other side of the city where, sitting on top of a large hill rested the Shinto shrine that had become the lookout spot for the two lovers.

They lay on the grass for what seemed like an eternity, but it was growing dark. When it was too dark to be out, they started home. They found Misato on the floor, laughing so hard that her sides hurt. The TV was on, and obviously she had watched some kind of comedy and it had just set her off. 

After a few minutes of laughter, for the most part Misato's, she finally greeted them. "Oh, hi, Shinji, where have you two been?"

"We were just." Asuka poked him in the ribs. "Out at the park. We met Touji and Hikari there."

"Oh, well, you had better get something to eat, and go to bed. You have some tests in the morning concerning your little…. thing. They haven't decided on a name for it yet. But you need to be well rested."  
  
"Wouldn't it do better if we were tired enough to go to sleep easily tomorrow?" Asuka asked."

"No, they want you fresh, not worn out. Now, come on, go to bed." She coaxed.

After a quick Korean fish and rice meal, they went to their separate bedrooms, but met secretly in their dreams. No one would know, and even if some one did find out…who cares!

The next day, they began testing the limitations and boundaries of the ability. "OK, now try shaping the AT field into something. Try a cone first." The air shimmered, and for a moment you could see the phase-state of the AT field in a conic shape. Ritsuko Akagi sat in the control room studying the readings on the field. She gaped at the control the two teens had over it. So far they had been displaying unheard-of ability in shaping and moving the field. Instead of having it surround their respective Eva's, they could detach them, and meld the two fields together, even making different shapes. "Try inverting it. Make it like a bowl. In fact, try taking some water from the reservoir over there." She indicated the body of water on the maps of their heads up displays. From inside the dreamstate, Shinji and Asuka were concentrating lust a little on the AT field.

They had found out that control was easy, and it took very little brainpower compared to just unfolding it in reality. The AT field in reality changed a little, and dipped into the water. Not even a ripple issued forth. Raising was as easy as lowering it. Even though the water must have weighed thousands of tons, it was as though they were lifting the AT field only.

"OK, you two, come out of it. That is enough for today. There will be more tests tomorrow, so be ready for them. I wasn't to see the full potential of this." Ritsuko turned around and found the approving stare of Gendou. He nodded, then stood and left.

The Evas shuddered, then stood and moved to the launching catapults, and were withdrawn back into the Geofront. The pilots got out more excited than normal, talking to each other as though they had known each other for years. They chatted about this and that as they headed towards the showers, unawares that eyes were on them.

In an office high above the Eva cage, Commander Ikari stared down at his son. The only natural tie to the life he once had. He never wanted to lose Yui. She there fore became a permanent part of the project. He didn't like the way it had gone, but he made up for it. Seeing his son actually opening up to another person the way he had… that might cause problems with the schedule. He would have to see how things went before he made a decision on the matter. For now, let Shinji know what life is all about. That might atone for some of the things that he had and would put him through.


	13. Preparations

****

Preparations

Gendou Ikari sat in the tall straight back chair at the end of the long table once again, on the receiving end of more chastise from Seele. It seemed like when he progressed they just bickered at him even more. He didn't care. They were not the reason or the motivation behind his work. Just the monetary backing. They didn't control him; it just looked that way because he wanted (to an extent) what they wanted. That is OK. They are just a means to an end. Just like everything else. It matters not how one gets there. Just that one accomplishes his goals, and satisfies his destiny. It disturbed him for a moment that he would think that way, but then realized that there wasn't anything wrong with it, and let his attention drift back to the council members. 

"We understand that they show great promise, however, I don't want to rely upon them. Ikari, you are going to have to step up the timetable. We can't let them get the best of us due to lack of preparation. It seems that they will come quicker than we anticipated, and I want you as ready as possible to intercept them."

The image of a broken Shinji, lying there babbling, attempting to make rational thought appeared in his mind, and he wished that there were another way, but they had to test scenarios to be ready for the onslaught they would soon find themselves in. 

"I understand. A possible end is near. And our fates rest on a boy and a girl." Gendou thought to himself. No, not a boy and a girl. A man and a woman. They are more than children now. They are stronger than I am. 

The lights went out, and he was alone.

Over the next week, the inseparable pair of Eva pilots trained for hours both in simulation, testing against possible Angel configurations, and in reality working and honing their AT field control. It allowed them to grow closer if that were possible. The Magi computer was acting up. It had started showing signs of true decision-making capacity, even personality. Sporadic, but present, it caught everyone off guard a number of time. 

A full investigation was made into the matter. Caspar seemed to be the only one affected. When asked for a diagnostics report on itself, Caspar would not issue one unless the controller said please. It also would object when Commander Ikari tried to log on. The objection would be shot down of course because the other two computers would not agree on it. Some good things did come out of it. Startup sequences and activation times were shortened due to the computer taking over some of the more mundane checks and connections. Maya found that rarely if ever would she have to type an order during startup. She would begin, and then the computer would take over.

Near the end of the week, Commander Ikari was meeting with Ritsuko, mostly to find out what has been happening to the Magi. 

"It appears that a personality has chosen to inhabit it. Possibly one of the captures?"

"That is possible, however I think we both know who it is, don't we?"

"Yes, sir. It seems that nothing is out of your ex-wife's grasp."

"From now on, I do not ever want you to refer to her in that manner. Yui was my life, however she obviously was the savior of this project. Maybe not at the time. We thought that it was a major setback when she was absorbed from us, but now, in her present place, she has saved us a number of times."

"Yes, sir."

"Now, I believe you have something you need to be doing?"

"Y-yes, sir. Right away." Ritsuko turned, and walked back to the door set in the shadows.

Gendou sat for a long time, thinking over the little predicament with the computer. He logged on his terminal, that linked into the supercomputer, and found the usual debate over whether to allow him access. "Yui, why are you refusing me? And how did you do this?"

As if in answer the screen blanked, and two words shone on the darkened screen in yellow letters. FOR SHINJI. 

Gendou sat back in his chair, and silently contemplated the situation.

As the two pilots entered the cage, they stood looking at their Evas. Both had been miraculously cleaned and repaired since the last battle. Shinji's chest plating had been deeply scratched and the armor on the backside of his neck had been torn away. He wondered about how they attached the armor to the Eva, making it form fitting, and not more of a hindrance to the unit that it was worth. The pinkish liquid was draining slowly, moving at around a foot a minute. During emergencies it could be speed emptied by special pumps that carried the millions of gallons out of the way a thousand at a time.

The talked for a few minutes, and had a laugh over a joke that Asuka had heard recently. Gendou watched them, interested in what his son would be talking to her about. It had not escaped his attention that Shinji had taken up an interest in Asuka. Since about a month before, he had noticed that they suddenly spent a lot more together. He also noticed that Shinji came to headquarters smiling more. At first he thought that this would be a detriment to the mission, since Shinji had to be thinking a certain way so that he would act a certain way, so that certain things would happen. He had already arranged for the Marduk report to say that a certain class member that Shinji had become god friend with would have a "bad experience" in his Eva. Shinji had to be thinking right for it all to work. The Dead Sea Scrolls had already prophesied on the coming of the 13th angel. It would be named the Bardiel. The Angel of Hail storms. It would infect the newest Eva somehow, but he knew not how. 

He hated doing the things he did, but they were for a reason. For Yui. For the rest of the world. For Seele. What did it matter. He didn't like hurting his son because of it.

He was proud of Shinji. Not just because of the things he did in Eva, but because he was his son. A living representation of his continuance. He decided to leave them the way they were. There was nothing he could do about it now except make it worse.

Shinji and Asuka departed and went to the lockerrooms to change. Asuka changed into her plug suit, thinking about how she had treated and mistreated Shinji over the months that she had known him before she had "awakened". She felt bad for him, constantly having to endure the burden of someone chiding and making fun of him at every turn. She wanted to make it up to him, but she didn't know how. When guys wanted to make it up to their significant others, they bought flowers or candy. She didn't know what would happen. As it was, their lives were run on a day to day basis.

She finished dressing, and left, the door shutting silently behind her.

Shinji was standing against the railing, looking out of the city through the windows. He turned around, and saw her. "I was just wondering something, Asuka, do you ever take off those neural connectors?"

"Well, no. I like them because they show off my status as an Eva pilot. I want everyone to know it. Also they make a fashion statement. I almost look android-ish. That's what you anime freaks like right?"

"Well, most of us do like the exotic femmes, but you are the one that I like." Shinji mentally noted Oh, yes, score one for me. 

Asuka moved closer, and took his hand, and they walked back to the pilot loading area again. It was empty, but the techs would soon begin arriving, so they went ahead, and seated themselves in the chair/consoles to await insertion into the entry plug. Soon the techs arrived, and the chairs were hoisted on the arm and placed in the plug. After finally being inserted into their respective Evas, the activated, and readied themselves for launch. 

"Do you know what we are doing today?" Shinji asked Asuka 

"Well, I was told earlier that we would be finishing up the AT field tests today. It is supposed to be an endurance run. How long can we do it? That kind of thing."

And so with that, they started to sleep, and began working with the AT field. After 8 hours, they were still going strong, and the technical staff at headquarters was starting to get bored. Actually they were very bored. Maya had finished doodling on her 17th sheet of paper. Shigeru was writing music, but he found he was just not talented enough to get the right sound. Makoto was just not there. He had wandered off long ago. Ritsuko was beginning to fall asleep, and Misato was trying to find a way to have beer delivered to her house rather than have to stop on the way home and get it.

"Ok, that's enough. Guys, it looks like you can keep it up indefinitely. Let's shut em down, and go home."

The pilots awakened, and let out huge yawns. They had been under for a long time, controlling the AT fields were not that hard to control, so they were not tired or overly hungry. They moved their units to the launch buildings, and put them back in the restraints, and were withdrawn back into the Geofront.

After deactivation, they showered, and met Misato to be taken home. Once there, they ate, and Misato went promptly to bed. Shinji and Asuka, finally alone, began talking about their recent activities.

"I don't think they know what's going to happen next, Shinji."

"What makes you think that?"

"The fact that we aren't even going to school because we are always training. I mean, yesterday we had a harmonics test, and more AT field testing, then we had sim runs on new angels, and different situations. It is all a little too much."

"I know what you mean. They must be unsure of the new threats that we might have in the future. It's kind of scary."

"I know. It scares me too. I don't want to die, Shinji."

"What? You won't die. There is nothing to be afraid of." He moved closer, and held her. This is the most vulnerable he had seen her in a while, and he needed to console her. 

The embrace turned into a kiss, and then into a melding. They moved from the livingroom where they had been seated, and into Shinji's room. Asuka, a look of happiness in her eyes lay on her back on the bed, and beckoned to him. 

They made love that night. The best that either had experienced. It lasted for a long time, and they were tired when it ended. After a while, they talked.

"Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you love me?"

"…Love…does not have a reason. It just happens I guess. I like being near you. If that were all I was allowed to do, that would be heaven in itself."

Asuka took a moment to think this over. It had all started so suddenly. It had not been more than two months since they had first realized their love. The old Asuka would have beaten him to death for some of the things that he had said and done, not because they were wrong, but they went against her personality. She had realized, though, that a person couldn't function well without love. Without companionship, and togetherness, she was incomplete. But, with Shinji's soul a part of hers, she was a completed person. The feeling of life no longer had the emptiness in the center. She woke up in the mornings full of vigor, unable to wait for the day to start. 

"Shinji?"

"Yeah?"

"What did you think of me the first time you saw me?"

"Ulp! Uhh...well that is… The first time I actually saw you, I got a pretty good panty shot from you," Asuka smacked him on the head. "But, you were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Before that, Misato had been my epitome of a goddess. But there were qualities about you that set you apart. You lack of alcoholism for example."

"Mmm. Asuka lay against his breastbone, and fell asleep to the rhythmic lub-dubbing of his heart. Shinji too went to sleep, and they met in the dream realm once again. This time they made love on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean, the sun setting on the horizon, painting the sky with reds and purples that no one had ever seen.

Far above, several forms lay dormant in the vast reaches of space, waiting, pondering, and preparing. They had never had this big of a force against a single foe since the Great Division. This would be a day long remembered. The day when enemy vanquished, they would converge of the prize, the object for which they were searching, hidden away beneath the ground. The ground that they would reclaim after it had been lost for so long….

NOTE!!!!!

Since this is the next to last episode, I thought it would be prudent to tell you some things about this one….. I wrote this whole fic in a hurry. It is not well thought out, and it contains many mistakes. I apologize. If you don't want spoilers, do not read on.

Shinji and Asuka's love and connection ability is a result of an angel. The angels that were seen in the beginning of the series were like spy satelites, keeping an eye on what is happening. The one that caused the love was an undocumented angel. It doesn't appear on any reports, and will never come to light. Yes, Shinji undoubtedly wears condoms. Yes Kaji was spying on Asuka and Shinji when they had their little spat. No he didn't do anything to the Magi. When they took the special tests, a part of Yui's consciousness entered the computer system. She also programmed the "face" of Unit 01 into the porgram. If you have any wuestions, e-mail me, and I will answer them, and put them in this note too…


	14. An Ashokan Farewell

An Ashokan Farewell 

Note: Yes I wrote this first part while listening to "Ashokan Farewell". If you have the means, I suggest it. It is a beautiful piece of music.

Shinji sat next to Asuka, and watched the sunset from the overlook that sat nestled in the mountain. The sun shimmered as it passed the horizon, sinking slowly into the ocean. The water rippled and reflected the sunlight, sending the golden shafts out in all directions, stinging their eyes. But the pain was welcome, not due to a love of pain, but because a measure of pain is required to affirm life.

Shinji lay back, and felt the grass tickle the back of his neck. He drew Asuka's hand to his face, and rubbed the back of her hand across his cheek. Why do I deserve this? What did I do to warrant love of this magnitude? He inhaled her fragrance, and was high off of just her smell. She was intoxicating.

"I have something for you, but I can't give it to you here."

"Where is it, Shin-chan?"

"We have to go back to the apartment to get it…"

"Ok, will I like this surprise?"

"I think you will."

Shinji stood, and pulled Asuka up after him. Silently they made their way home, unwittingly using the route as they did they day they fell in love. It was a long way home. Shinji and Asuka had just never noticed it 

Arriving at the apartment, they entered to find it dark, no one home, excepting Pen2. He was not to be seen either. Shinji led her to his room, leaving the lights off, and sat her down on the bed. He turned on a table lamp, and went to his closet.

Asuka leaned forward trying to see what he was getting, but didn't see it until he turned around. Shinji stood there with his cello in one hand, the bow in the other… He took the bow, and rosined it a little, and sat in a chair in front of her, the cello between his knees.

The bow poised over the strings, then he moved, and drew out the first notes. The tune was "Ashokan Farewell". He had found it in a music shop a few weeks earlier. After listening to it, and finding the lyrics, he had cried his eyes out. The slow rhythm of the sound burned him to his core, the sadness and heartbreak melting him. Asuka listened to it silently, taking it in. It was one of the most profound pieces of music she had ever listened to. 

Tears welled in her eyes, and rolled down her face. The love expressed in the song, even without words, was evident. It was the pure, untainted love that happens only once in a lifetime. As the music ended, Shinji, leaned the cello against the desk, and lay the bow down. Asuka, no longer cool and composed went to him, and pulled him to sit by her on the bed. They embraced, and stayed there for a long time, sharing in the unity that resulted from it. She sniffed.

"I figured it would get you too."

"That was beautiful. How long did you work on that?"

"Well, I practiced for about the last 3 weeks, and finally got it down a few days ago."

"I didn't hear you."

"That is because I snuck out, and played elsewhere. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Ah ha! So, keeping secrets from me then, huh?"

"Well only for a while. Would you rather heard it for three weeks, then hear it again tonight? Heh heh."

"I guess not."

"Asuka?"

"Yes, Shin-chan?"

"That was not the only present I had. I wanted to get you something… Something you could wear."  
  
Asuka looked at him expectantly. She couldn't help it. He's going to give me a ring? Does this mean he wants to marry me? 

"But, were love money, I could have bought you a ring. Instead I got you this." He held up a red velvet box.

She took it gingerly, looking at him the whole while.

"Well, go ahead, open it…." He said with urgency.

She flipped up the top, and saw a necklace with a pendant. The pendant was silver, shaped in a diamond, and paced in the middle was a ruby of the deepest red, inlaid with silver in a heart shape. She caught her breath. If there were anything he could have gotten her other than a ring, this would be it. The gold chain dangled from the case, and she lifted the cardboard retainer and drew out the necklace.

Shinji took it, and as Asuka lifter her fiery locks out of the way, he fastened it around her neck. He sat down behind her, and wrapped his arms around, his chest pressed against her back. He laid his head on her shoulder, and smelled her sweet aroma once more. He was happy. He could live on this moment for the rest of his life. It would be substance enough. They were in the middle of love making when Misato's sluggish slurred speech interrupted. 

The sound of the front door opening. "Okaykaji." She laughed. "Shhhhh!!! Pbbbbbbt." She laughed some more. They heard a "Thunk!" and decided it would be a good time to stop. Asuka got up, and cleaned herself up, and then kissed Shinji, and went to the door.

"Good night. I love you." She opened the door, and peeking out to make sure no one was there, she left. Shinji lay awake for a while, and heard Kaji remarking about Misato.

"Katsuragi, I wonder how you have managed to stay alive. I guess that you only drink this much when there is someone to drive you, or you are at home. Drinking until you puke. That is a little childish, I must say." He heard the door open and close again.

He thought about Asuka. Ashokan Farewell playing over and over in his mind. The song was about lost love, and the authors hope of rejoining. The love that the author felt apparent in the music. It brought tears to his eyes. While sorrow was a comfortable emotion, it was not enjoyable. But he felt like a king in those moments before he went to sleep. He was in love with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she with him. Things were finally starting to go right. He was coming out on top for once. He fell asleep in minutes, and was surprised to find Asuka waiting for him. She is starting to turn into a little nympho. He could tell what she wanted to do by the look she was giving him. But, that's not so bad a punishment, now is it? 

"Commander, are you sure that these will work?" Dr. Akagi gestured to the large restraining systems that had been designed for the Evas. Not only did it restrain, but also its design amplified the apparent AT Field. In tests, the metals used channeled it well, and the projection even magnified.

"They will. They are also necessary, Dr. we can't have the Eva's hurting each other now can we?" Gendou smiled his half smile, and looked over his interlocked fingers.

Ritsuko didn't like the sound of that. For the first time, he wasn't telling her something. She had been left in the dark about this one. She took the diagrams from his desk, and turned away from him, and strode to the door, and glancing back at him, she left.

I think that sitting there alone has done something to him. He is going crazy. What am I saying he has been crazy for some time now…

Gendou reflected on his work. For many long minutes he planned and worked out details in his head. Things were going exactly to the schedule.

Shinji and Asuka were awoken early the next morning to sirens. Shinji jumped out of bed. Asuka kind of fell out of bed. She walked around dazed for a few minutes, trying to get her bearings. "No! It's my birthday party. I don't want to go fight right now!"

Shinji heard here and let out an audible "Huh?" 

After finally figuring out what was going on, Asuka started getting dressed. Shinji who had slept in his clothes was already up, and trying, unsuccessfully to wake the catatonic Misato. "C'mon Misato!!! The Angels are attacking! What the hell? AUGHHGHGHG!" He finally screamed. It was hopeless. Asuka appeared in the hallway and asked hi what was happening.

"Misato is out cold, and I can't seem to wake her up." He said. Peering at the prone Misato, he noticed that she must not have moved much at night. She was lying on her back, hands at her sides.

"Well, you get her arms, I'll get he legs, and we will take her to the car."

"Who is going to drive?"

"You will, Shinji." She stated.

"Me? I can't drive. Didn't you see what happened the last time?" He argued.

"Well, that is much better than my driving experiences. Most of them have ended in total disaster." She said at length.

"Ok, ok. Here." He bent down, and got Misato's arms and Asuka got her legs. They half dragged half carried her out to the elevator, and then out of the building to the car waiting in the parking lot. "Man is she heavy. I don't know if it is because she weighs a lot, or we are just weak." Asuka observed.

After loading her in the sports car, Shinji took the keys out of her pocket, and eyeing Asuka, he started the car. After putting it in gear, and revving the engine a few times, he pushed a little on the gas, and let off of the clutch slowly. The car lurched forward, and almost died, but he saved it in time. He didn't want to have to start off again. 

After getting it up to 4th gear, he let it at that. They were flying down the road at a frightening pace, but because everyone was evacuated, there was no traffic. They ran red lights, and sped towards HQ, and got there just as the last building was accommodated. The car train sped them below ground, and they were soon in front of NERV. After calling a couple of guards to help the awakening Misato from the car, the two teens sped off to the command center. When they got there, utter pandemonium is what they encountered.

Ritsuko was typing furiously on God knows what, Maya, Shigeru, and Makoto are making reports to Gendou, and he is ordering things about with abandon. He points at Shinji and Asuka.

"What are you doing here? Get to the cage. You have to fight." And with that the one sided conversation was over.

They didn't waste time changing into plug suits, they climbed into the pilots seat, and were inserted into the entry plug, and then were poised above the Signal Plug Terminator, waiting for the familiar "shink, whirrrrrrrr, zzzhhhhhhhhhhhh" that signaled startup.

The briefing started as soon as they were inserted.

"Shinji. Asuka. Rei is already activated, and waiting for you, she is on the launch platform. What we know is very little. We have identified two of the Angels as models that we extrapolated. They are variants of models 17.44 and 19.38. Plan accordingly. Unfortunately that leaves us with three other angles of unknown nature." Ritsuko had here serious expression on.

"What?! We are expected to fight five angels? And how are we going to do that?" Asuka yelled.

"We have some preliminary ideas. First you two are going to be induced to sleep. Your entry plugs will have the pressure turned up, and you will black out for a while. You can be revived if the need arises, but for now this is necessary. We are going to have you hidden in one of our decoy buildings that has been constructed. There, you will neutralize the AT fields for Rei."

"But Rei is nowhere good enough to fight all of them!" Shinji pleaded.

The 'Sound Only' box came on, and his fathers calm voice filled the LCL. "That is none of your concern. It has been dealt with. Do as you are told." It amazed Shinji how one minute, his father could be excited, and in command, and shouting orders, and the next, cool, and decisive. The sound only box went off, and Ritsuko came back on.

"Allow Rei to deal with them. If anything happens that is going to endanger the mission, we will go from there, we haven'' been able to plan that far ahead, but it will do for now. We have to launch. They are starting their attack. They will be exiting the mountains from the North and East within a few moments. Any questions?"

"No ma'am." They said in unison, dejectedly.

"Move Units 01 and 02 to the Launch platform with Unit 00. Set up launch sequences to converge 01 and 02, and move them to the building. Launch Unit 00 to the 7th sector. I want her behind some cover. And find Misato!"

The Evas were relocated to the platforms alongside Unit 00. At the command, they were launched, losing site of each other as girders and crossbeams whizzed by and the shower of sparks darkened the photosensitive viewport. Shinji and Asuka found themselves in a large warehouse type building, but suited for the Evas to stand facing each other in the middle.

Rei stood near a set of apartment buildings, watching a camera feed of the angels coming down a pass from the mountains. They were as varied as any others they had encountered. The first to appear was a large tangle of a mesh like substance. It flowed rather than walked. The next was similar in movement technique, but very different in looks. It was vaguely amoebae-like, but more solid looking. It poured and oozed into the streets. They came from the eastern side.

From the North, came the other three. One walked upright, and looked very much humanoid. It had soft looking skin, and no armor apparent. Another floated, and continuously changed from sphere to flat circle shape. It would have looked funny had there been some boisterous music, but there was nothing funny about it. The final enemy was detected, but could not be seen easily. It cast shadow, but for some reason was only visible when it moved quickly.

They spread out, aware that a threat was present, but unable to ascertain where it lay.

In the control room, Misato, propped by a staff-person, half walked half dragged into the room, and plopped into a chair.

"Ms. Katsuragi. For the remainder of the campaign, would you refrain from using alcohol to escape reality in such quantities as you did last night? It would benefit us greatly if we had our staff awake and sober." Gendou stared through his tinted glasses at her, his folded hands framing her.

"Yes, sir." She said, wincing at how loud her whispering voice was. It sounded like a cannon in her head. "What is our status?" She asked Ritsuko.

"Unit 00 is deployed, and waiting to attack, Units 01 and 02 are getting ready to deploy their fields."

"You mean Rei is fighting alone? How could you do that?" She asked Gendou and Ritsuko at the same time.

"There are things that you have not been made aware of, and that will be revealed in today's fight. In the future you may make use of these procedures to help better your command of combat." Gendou stated coolly.

In Shinji's plug, the pressure was increasing slowly. It was comfortable at first, then oppressive, then it was black. He found himself floating, among flowers and trees. The smell of spring stung his nostrils lightly, and he sneezed. This pushed him back, and right into Asuka.

"Oh! Hey, watch it, buddy! Oh, I'm sorry, it's you, Shinji."

Shinji blushed, and said his normal "sorry". Then he remembered their task. He took Asuka's hand, and thought to her. We need to start powering the AT fields up. Rei may not have much time. 

OK. Powering up, now. 

The ATF extrapolator showed the permeating AT field expanding and getting darker. It grew from the building, and then moved across the street, then surrounded the block, then surrounded that quadrant, then that section. The Evas lay dormant, only using power to keep up the nerve connections and powering the field. The angels' fields started converging on the expanding field of Shinji and Asuka's.

Rei leapt from behind the building, and struck at the humanoid enemy first. It took the blow, but then formed around the Prog knife, and yanked it from her. She spotted it's core, but it was being constantly covered and swirled around by the liquid like flesh. She kicked hard at it, and launched the angel across the city, only to be confronted by another. This one, the invisible one, punched her in the side, and then moved away. It was playing with her.

Her emotionless stare searched for the angel's form, moving from building to building, seeking it, but now seeing it. She spotted it, and pulled her other prog knife out, ready to throw, when a shadow fell across her, as another angel bore down on her.

It struck with a heavy blow across the back of her neck, nearly slicing through the armor that protected the entry plug. It's long arms reached out, and it grasped one of her arms. Try as it might, Unit 00 could not free itself. It writhed and fought, but still it was locked in the angel's grasp. Then with its other hand, it took hold of her opposite leg. Flexing its muscles it pulled, and the muscles in her leg and arm were stretched. They bulged, trying to retract to a normal length. Then with a loud ripping sound, the leg popped out of joint, and hung limply towards the ground.

In the control room, Gendou was looking at a file containing information on the dummy plug system. He closed the file, and looked back at the screen. Is it ready? Will it work? This test will tell. 

He whispered quietly into the console at his right. "Begin dummy plug initiation."

In Unit 00, Rei, writhing in pain at the loss of her leg, and the slice along the back of her neck, wept openly from the exhaustive torture. Then everything in the entry plug went black. She felt no more pain. The screen remained off for a few moments, then started up again. Only this time it was tinted with a sickening color of red.

The Eva's eyes glowed red, revealing the destructive nature and ability that lay within. It screamed. The roar stopped time, and made all those who witnessed it shiver with fright. The free leg kicked out, and caught the angel in its head area. 

By reaction it released the Eva, and stumbled backwards. Now on the ground, Unit 00 propped itself up, and looked at it's leg, dangling from the joint, still attached, but wrenched from it proper place. It concentrated, and the leg moved back into joint. The laceration on its neck healed, and slowly, as though it regretted it, stood up, and faced its enemy once more. 

The angels right arm shot out again, but this time, the Eva caught it with it's right arm, and twisting and pulling right, broke the skeletal structure, and tore off the arm with a sickening "splorch". Thick green and blue liquid flowed freely from the wound and in to the streets. Unit 00 shot it's hand forward, and grasping the angel by a mouth lick structure, yanked its jaw out. Using it as a weapon, it stabbed and hacked at the angel for many seconds.

  
"Looks like they may have tricked the dummy plug." Fuyutsuki stated.

"Don't be so sure. The fight isn't over." Gendou returned. He could see the ruse at work. The angel that was being beaten was a decoy. It would die to allow the others time to neutralize the Eva.

"They have it cornered now. They will begin their attack at any time."

In the dream, Asuka saw what was happening too, and she shouted at Shinji. "We have to do something!"

"I know, if father doesn't call me soon, I will be forced to go out."

"I may not like her much, but I can't stand to see her killed. We have to do something. I want to fight. I hate the defense!"

The amorphous angel pounced first, enveloping Unit 00 in it thick viscouse fluid self. Acids from vacuole like spaces started eating the armor. The Eva quickly sliced at one of the vacuoles, opening it to the rest of the angel. The acids and enzymes poured out, digesting the rest of the angel, slowly, agonizingly slowly, but doing it none the less. Seeing it's fallen comrade, and feeling the loss, the invisible angel moved in again, this time reaching through the amorphous angel, and grabbing Unit 00 again by a leg, only this time, yanking her out, and throwing her against a building.

She landed on her feet, and jumped to the side to miss the next blow that was coming for her. But, she jumped right into the tangled angel, and found out what it was about. Electricity jolted through her, sizzling flesh and burning it away. Sparks flew all around, and despite its attempts to get away, it was unable to escape the electrical assault.

  
Gendou looking through his steepled hands, not wanting to think about the pain that his Rei was experiencing thought about the usefulness of the dummy-plug system. "We are going to have to tweak its aggressiveness up a little. It seems a little unwilling to fight."

"Yes, sir. Fuyutsuki said, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Should we scramble Unit 01 and 02 into the fight?"

"I don't think that will be necessary, it is being taken care of as we speak."

  
In the dream realm, Shinji and Asuka watched the battle unfold in rapt attention. They had not noticed the woman who came up behind them. She was wrapped in shadow, and difficult to see. Shinji tried to turn to look at Asuka but found that he was unable to turn his head. A whisper at his ear told him that everything was all right, and the he needn't worry about anything. My dear Shinji. Stay here with her. She needs you, and you need her. I will go to fight this battle, and you will protect her and all of them down there. He knew who it was, and was both frightened and comforted. Frightened of the unknown that said that his mother was still alive, and comforted in knowing that she was there with him. They're with them…

In the control room, all kinds of things were going crazy. The computer had just received a request for additional amounts of power to be accessible to Unit 01, and they had been OKed and carried out. Then several orders were given, and the computer complied. Makoto, Maya, and Shigeru all looked at each other, and then at their screens. Ikari held up a hand at their inquiries, and told them to just take it the way it came.

Unit 01 stood, its eyes shining a bright light, and tore its way from the building. Several of the buildings had been storing power for the last few seconds, and suddenly three of them catapulted up as they were forcefully extended. The angels that were standing on where they had been retracted were catapulted also. Many miles away, they landed, and after the shock wore off, the started back to the city to finish the fight.

Unit 01, roared, and for a moment it sounded like a guttural laughter. It lunged at the wiry angle, and kicked Unit 00 out of its grip. The Eva slid away, and rested against a hillside before standing up again, and looked around for the other angles. Unit 01 was staring at the wiry angel, daring it to move. It breathed hard. Anyone watching would question that. They had never seen the Eva's breath before. Finally tired of waiting, the Eva made a sweeping gesture with one arm, and cut the angel nearly in two. Green ichor flowed freely from the many thousands of wounds. The mass reformed on itself, and became whole again. Then it attacked. It sent many silvery tendrils forward, trying to grab the Eva, and pull her in, but it had not realized that the Eva, although inhabited by someone very much sane, had gone totally berserk, and was now fighting to rid it of it's enemies. Through instinct, and primal strength, it evaded strikes and dodged blows, both physically carried out, and formed through the AT field.

By this time, the other angels were coming back in, and a one of them was within attack range.

Unit 01 reached out, and grabbed the shape-changing angel that until this point had stayed silent. A wail rent the air, and it slowly drooped and sagged, trying to make itself a cumbersome a load as possible. Yui would not be thwarted so easily however. She lifted it above her head, and with as great a force as she could must, slammed it down on the ground, crushing what was left of the amorphous angel, and dropping the wiry mess that was the other close angel. She picked I t up again, and slammed it down again. This was getting her nowhere. 

She pulled out her prog knife and set to work, slicing pieces off, but they reformed on the body, and replaced the parts that she cut off with grim efficiency. The wiry angle advanced on her from behind, and locked onto her left leg. It started reeling her in slowly. When she started to struggle, it jerked her off of its flattened comrade, and into its messy interior. The electricity arced, and splayed over her body, tightening muscles here, and relaxing them there, making her totally useless. Then she got mad. The electricity stopped working the way it should. The battery backups on her back started filling, the energy being pumped into them through sheer force of will on Yui's part. When they reached maximum, she ejected them, and picked them up again. The angel stopped its attack, to start powering up again. 

In Central Dogma, everyone was watching on curiously. Trying to figure out what Unit 01 was doing with her batter packs. Life signs showed that Shinji was still asleep, and the monitors showed his chest still rising and falling rhythmically, and his eyes still shut. On the screen, Unit 01 knelt, and forced the two batteries to connect on opposite ends, then wound electric line around it, and thrust it deep into the mass of tangles that comprised the attacker. She ran. 

"That's a neat trick, there. I'll have to rem, rem, remmbember that one." A still slightly drunk Misato stated. Ritsuko looked at her and shook her head. Misato had woken up just enough to watch for those few seconds, then fell asleep after her brief monologue.

The explosion shook the ground for miles around, not only did it incinerate the relatively unprotected electrical angel, it damaged the invisible one that was standing close by. Blood flowed freely from it wounds, and the gore covered the streets. 

Shinji watched the battle, and nearly threw up a couple of times. The fury and rage that the Eva, his mother, showed was terrible. Although her knew that she loved him, and that she was doing this to protect both him and Asuka now, he was amazed that she could do things like that.

The Eva narrowed its eyes, and searched for the last angel. The invisible form would not be hard to see now, it was splattered with its blood, and it was not very hard to see the ooze floating above the streets, as well as falling into them.

As she turned a corner, she spotted it, it had fallen onto one knee, and was propping itself up on it stump of an arm. It was so pitiful, kneeling there like that, as though it was praying to its God, asking it for deliverance, or a quick death. It's death came fast enough, however, as Unit 01, and winding up, brought it's fist down on the skull, doing so much damage that the fist ended up being buried deep within the chest cavity.

The unit shut down, it had long ago run out of power, and now, since it's purpose had been spent, it no longer needed to be activated. Crews would be out shortly to attach power cables, and then he would activate, and move to the recovery area. Rei's Unit 00 had been shut down earlier in an attempt to keep her from being targeted by the angels. If anything had happened that threw the situation more out of control than it already was, she would have reactivated, and assisted Unit 01. Unit 02 was still in the shredded building. Yui had been in such a hurry to get out; she had not bothered with the doors.

While they were still sleeping, Yui appeared once more. "Shinji. I don't want you to think about what happened out there. There are some things happen with you thinking about them. Instead I want you to concentrate on loving this woman next to you." Asuka took his hand. The ridges that made up her finger prints, the fine hairs on the back of her hand, the minute wrinkles on her palm, were all he could feel. The over sensitivity of the dream realm enabled him to feel her in the greatest detail. "Always remember that I love you, and know that I will be her always to help you. Now, go on, and get out of here, and back to your lives, there are a few people who might be worried about you."

Asuka and Shinji sat on the steps to the Ancient Shinto Shrine that had been the dawning for their love. Once again the sun was setting into the sea, and once again they were watching it. 

"Asuka, I love you. What an amazing feeling. Since I met you, the seeds of my love were growing, and now, after sprouting, I feeling truly alive. Before that, I was just an empty shell that looked like me. People can't go on alone. The sense of solitude and agony are overwhelming when there is no one to hold and share you self with…I-I love you."

Asuka absorbed this a minute, and after careful reflection, spoke. "Shinji, promise me that we will always be together. Promise me that. I don't eve want to leave you, and I don't think I could take it. Our love grows daily, deeper and wider than any ocean." Sniff " I love you too."

Close by, standing in the shadows, hands at her sides, Rei watched the couple. She could feel from that distance the love the two shared. It was almost tangible, and it pressed on her heart. She had never felt anything like it, and it both hurt her, and brought her pleasure. She eyed them for a long time, making sure not to actually look at them for too long. They would feel her eyes, and turn around. She had longed for so long to feel what love was about, and, without knowing, Shinji and Asuka had given her that. Her quest had come to a close, and now, she opened a new quest, what it was she didn't know, but it was noble, and true. Something worth it, and only time would tell where her pursuits would take her.

Misato sat at home, waiting for the two lovebirds. She knew that they had had sex, and she was not disappointed in either of them. She saw the love for what it was, and did not want to deny them the physical aspects of love, when they had already delved into the emotional ones. She also suspected that they had had sex long before the physically had it, while in the dream realm. She remembered the video feed coming from Asuka's plug, and it confirmed her suspicions. When they came in, she asked them to have a talk.

"You both know my stance when it comes to your relationship right?"  
  
"Actually I am not that clear on it." Asuka stated flatly. It had been a long time since their last discussion on this subject, and things might have changed.

"Well, it alright with me that you have it, and now, I think you both have matured a great deal, I want you to enjoy it. That does not mean wanton sex all over the house, but that means that you are as free to do what you want as I am. I don't want you two to get into trouble, so play it safe a little OK? I know that there is no guaranteed safety except for abstinence, but, well, you know." They nodded their heads, they knew. "Also, I wanted to say how proud I am of both of you. You have found what many people never find, and the fact that you have found it so young is amazing. Many people search their whole lives for their soul mates, and they never find them. I remember saying once that air-conditioning was man's triumph over nature, but it isn't. Do you know what sets us apart from the animals? Our love. I have not seen one animal yet that I can say without a shadow of doubt that it loves its mate. Now pen-pen, I love him, and I think he tolerates me. That could be seen as something like love, but I don't know" She suppressed a laugh. "Any way, you two be careful, I have work to do tonight. We are reviewing a report on the 5th child tonight, and I don't want to invoke the wrath of your father, Shinji, so I think I will be there early and sober." She waved to them, and left, patting pen-pen (who heard the entire conversation, and was a little angry that she could talk of him that way) on the head.

They sat together, and wondered about the future. True tough times would greet them both, whether in the near future, or in the distant future. They could handle it together, and they would be the mounting odds.

The angel hung high over head, pondering the images it had taken of the battle not so long ago. After the failure of its brethren, it had sent requests for more forces. The next of it's kin would be infecting the newest model of android fighter. From now on, they would not send multiple opponents. They would have to be more subtle, more tricky…

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yes this is bit of a sudden end, however, Episode 19 occurs immediately after this. If there is some problem in this series somewhere that you feel must be rectified, contact me, and tell me how I can fix it. I plan to start another series soon (this one hopefully better) so stay tuned. 


End file.
